#no rain in the forecast. well. 30% for half of one day. that's nothing. that's less than nothing. can we have some clouds at least...

[cantankerouscatfish]

heaves a big sigh

tomorrow is gonna be one of those 'stand out in the field watering and frying at the same time' kinda days. alright.

[jogetschatty]

I Am An Ironman (IM Chattanooga Race Recap)

Well, y'all - Ironman Chattanooga surpassed my wildest hopes and dreams.

I'm honestly still in disbelief. Not just that I accomplished this dream, but about the day I had on Sunday. When I crossed the finish line, I couldn't stop saying "I had the perfect day." I never went to that dark place everyone talks about. There was never a moment I questioned my ability to finish.

Monday brought perhaps an even bigger surprise, but I'll save that as an incentive to make it through this very long post (Hint: it involves a big island).

Anyway, let's start from the beginning.

We arrived in Chattanooga late Thursday night with two bikes, a car full of gear and a whole lot of race nerves. Thankfully, we had a lot to do over the next couple days to distract us. After chatting with other athletes over breakfast in the hotel lobby (we stayed at the Hampton Inn downtown, just blocks from transition), we set out for a shakeout ride. We decided to drive the full bike course and ride a short stretch of it. It worked out perfectly that by parking at the Cedar Grove Community Center, riding down to see the sharp turn onto Hog Jowl first hand and heading back we got a 30 minute shakeout ride. I was nervous that the roads were pretty rough until you crossed into Georgia, but otherwise it was a beautiful course!

Next we headed to Ironman Village to check in. It really gets real when they put that bracelet on your list and assign you your race number (as an odd number loving gal, I had a good feeling when I was assigned 1155!). I also started to feel the pressure - I knew if I didn't finish the race, I'd never want to look at all the great swag! Next we headed to Cashew for a quick vegan lunch, drove the run course (oh man, those hills looked even harder than I'd imagined!) and rested up before the undie run.

The Undie Run is a longtime Ironman tradition, meant to shake out the muscles and ease the nerves - and I have to say, it worked! About 50 of us gathered in undies of all sorts - from lingerie to tighty whities, costumes and beyond - to be a bit silly and run through town with our tushies hanging out. We ran about four miles, and after a week of tapering - it felt great! By the time we were done, our support crew was in town! We enjoyed dinner at Proof Bar & Incubator and settled in for an early night. I slept remarkably well!

By morning, the race day forecast had shifted quite a bit. Instead of showers in the afternoon, it was calling for rain throughout the entire bike ride. I was already nervous about the 116 mile ride, and this really spiked my anxiety - I'm scared to bike in hard rain, and was worried about being cold. But we set about our day, starting with a practice swim at the Chickamauga Dam (one lap in a wetsuit, one in a swim skin since we weren't sure whether it would be wetsuit legal). From there, we packed up our gear bags and checked our bikes into transition (in the wrong spot! thankfully an amazing volunteer moved them and reached out to let us know). I found someone to put my hair into battle braids a la the great Lucy Charles, and made sure my nails matched my bike (#priorities)!

We took a bit of downtime before heading to the parents' Airbnb for a very early dinner (we landed on these BBQ tofu bowls!) and were in bed by 8pm. Again, I slept remarkably well until about 3am! At 4am I checked my phone - wetsuit legal! Our alarm went off at 4:30am, and I was remarkably calm (despite a forecast that now called for "gusty winds and small hail") as we set about our race morning routine. We ate breakfast (an English muffin with sunflower butter, jelly, half a banana and a mini blueberry muffin, plus a bottle with electrolytes). We got dressed, had a good poop (this is important!), packed our morning clothes bag, and were making our way to transition by 5:15. From there, things were a bit hectic as we had to circle a few times from bike to bike gear bag to run gear bag, but we'd left ourselves plenty of time and with nothing else to do, we were on the bus to swim start shortly after 6am. When I saw Kipchoge had broken the marathon world record in Berlin, I took it as a good omen - it was going to be a great day to race!

/\ Swim start!

We had almost TOO much time at swim start, and the nerves started to creep back in! We chatted with other athletes in the porta potty line, ate some gel blocks, drank water, brushed our teeth and finally it was time to line up. We checked in our morning clothes bags, said goodbye to our phones and self seeded in the 1:10-1:20 swim time (faster than I usually swim, but what I anticipated with the current). When Courtney said he was going to stay with me and get in the water, I let out a sigh of relief.

Finally it was 7:30. The anthem was sang, the cannon went off and we made our way toward the water. I told Courtney I loved him, to "be safe, race smart and have fun," gave him a kiss and said I'd see him at the finish line - and we jumped in the water.

From there, my nerves vanished. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face the rest of the day (seriously, people kept commenting on it!)

The 2.4 mile Swim: The water felt perfect. My stroke felt natural. I was calm and doing what I came here to do. I kept thinking to myself, "this swim is beautiful!" I felt like I was all over the river, but I had plenty of room and when I need to, took a few seconds to get out of the way of other swimmers and find my own path. I couldn't really tell how fast the current was moving, but soon I could see the bridges - and after swimming under the third, I could see the final buoy marking the swim out. I couldn't believe it when I looked down at my watch and say 56:10 minutes!

T1: Volunteers helped us up the stairs, and at swim exit I saw my brother in law Nate followed shortly by my father in law Mike! I put my hands up and waved, and ran on to where the strippers helped remove my wetsuit, got handed my bike bag and ran into the changing tent. It all felt like a blur! Since it felt pretty warm, I'd decided not to put on the throwaway long sleeve shirt I brought along, so I just dried my feet, put on my cycling shoes and helmet, applied chamois butter and sunscreen, shoved my wetsuit and goggles in the bag, took a puff of my inhaler, ate half my Maurten bar and grabbed my bike. 8:11 minutes.

The 116 mile Bike: This was hands down the part I was most nervous about. It was far and away the longest part of the day, the only section of the race I'd never done the full distance of before, and the part of the day that felt like SO much could go wrong (bike crashes, mechanicals, getting hit by a car). But I didn't take time to think about that - I just hopped on my bike and went. I was a little bit concerned when I looked down and saw my heart rate was at 141, but we were going up a slight incline and I knew I had a ton of adrenaline pumping from running out of the water and then running with my bike. I took deep breaths and calmed myself down.

I took the road out of town easy, to warm up and also because it's by far the roughest part of the course with potholes and train tracks and everything in between. There was an audible cheer around mile 5 when we crossed over from Tennessee to Georgia and the road quality immediately improved! It had started to rain, but it wasn't coming down very hard and I could see sunshine ahead. At that point I looked down and realized I was moving upwards of 20 mph, way faster than planned, but it felt effortless with the wind at our backs so I figured it would balance out once we hit the hills.

Before I knew it, I was at the start of the loop! I hit mile 16 and thought to myself "just a century left, you've done that before! The course was pretty crowded at this point, and it was hard to maintain 6 feet and also keep up speed. Since I had a full bottle of Maurten's 320 I was sipping on, and water in my aero bottle, I skipped the first aid station.

At some point around mile 20 it started to rain pretty hard. I said silently to myself, "you're okay, you've done this before, just keep biking, you're okay." And that's when I realized I actually really was okay. I biked cautiously and defensively and taking it easy on my descents. I saw quite a few cyclists crash into each other when one person slowed going up hill, so I kept my distance. I was soaking wet, but just above the line of uncomfortably cold. The rain subsided, and I actually found myself passing a lot of riders.

By aid station two, I'd finished my bottle. It was situated on the way up a hill, which made stopping annoying, but I decided it was still my safest bet. I pulled to the side and yelled for water, filled up my bottle with Untapped Mapleaid lemon tea, and had a little snack. While I was doing that, I saw two unsuccessful bottle hand offs and actually had to yell to warn a rider of a bottle, and stopped a teenage volunteer from running out RIGHT in front of a cyclist to get it, which definitely validated my decision to stop for a minute or two rather than get caught up in that chaos.

Soon I was taking the sharp turn onto Hog Jowl Rd. no problem, and heading to Chickamauga. Just as I'd started to get dry, it started raining on us again - but the road on the back side of the loop is a smooth, gorgeous descent. I realized, somewhat surprised, that I was actually enjoying the ride! I stopped again around mile 50, at special needs, and gobbled down an Uncrustable, took a gulp of the electrolyte drink I'd put on ice in case it was hot and poured the rest into my aero bottle. I realized I'd taken *no* salt pills, so I also popped one of those. On the way out I had a quick snafu where the lid to my aero bottle flew off and I had to turn around and get it, but I knew it would be worth it with 60+ miles left to go.

/\ Probably laughing because it was only after thinking a cyclist was peeing on my that I realized *everyone* had a stream of water shooting out from behind their bike.

On the steep, wet descent out of Chickamauga I saw the scariest thing I saw all day. Out of the corner of my eye, something bright in the ditch caught my eye, which I soon realized was a bike. It took my brain a second to register that there was someone lying next to it, unconscious. I briefly considered trying to turn back, but realized I'd very likely cause a bike pile-up with many cyclists coming around a corner and down a hill behind me, so I yelled to the first spectators I saw to please call medical right away - and realized they were already doing so. I realized I was shaking both at what I'd seen and whether I'd done the right thing, but I felt better when very soon after I saw the ambulance on the way.

I expected I'd be seeing my family soon, at the turnaround, and sure enough - there was my mom yelling and pumping her arms in the air! I gave them a big smile and thumbs up because I had a feeling they might be worried how I was holding up in the pouring rain and I wanted them to know I was actually doing okay. Then I was onto my second loop!

I will say, on the second loop there were hills I didn't remember - probably because they hadn't felt like hills the first time around! But despite being pruney from being wet for 5+ hours, I was still feeling good (though laughing at the thought I still had to do a marathon) and keeping in mind what a fellow triathlete told me a few weeks ago - if you feel any emotions on the bike - tired, hungry, angry, sad - eat or drink something. I also have to say - from spectators to volunteers to other riders, I got SO many call outs for my unicorn helmet, and it really kept my morale high! On my second loop, folks recognized me and were even yelling, "the unicorn is back!"

It wasn't until around mile 100 that I really started wanting off the bike - and honestly, it wasn't because I was tired or uncomfortable (miraculously, my shoulder and neck gave me no trouble - despite a lot of pain in training), but because I'd come so far feeling so GOOD and really wanted to get off the bike without any issues - I'd seen SO many mechanicals along the way, and didn't want to be one of them! As I turned back onto the highway toward home, the sun had come out and I realized I had a dull headache so I made a point to get some electrolytes in my body right away (I actually gnawed on a package of watermelon Nuun, because I couldn't get it in my water bottle), and immediately the headache started to subside.

As I made the final trip into town, I realized I was approaching my family's Airbnb and soon saw them in the front yard - including my brother who had flown in to surprise me! What a boost to get me through that final stretch home (when you hit 112 that would be the end of a regular Ironman, it hits you!) Soon I was rolling back into transition. I couldn't believe it - I made it through the bike and it was only 3:30pm, and when I signed up this race, I was genuinely nervous about making the 6:10pm bike cut off. Total time, 6:37:56.

Nutrition: 2 Maurten bars, 1 Uncrustable, 1 bottle Maurten 320, 2 Maurten gels (1 caffeinated, 1 uncaffeinated), 1 chocolate cherry caffeinated Clif gel, 1 Untapped waffle, 1 pack Untapped Mapleaid lemon tea, part of a bottle of Body Armor electrolyte drink and a few gel blocks, 3 salt pills, 4 mostly preventative painkillers.

T2: It was with huge joy and relief when I handed my bike to the catcher, but I was surprised that I actually didn't have the "and I never want to see you again, bike!" feeling that I'd had on some long rides. From there, I a volunteer handed me my run bag and I headed into the changing tent. Another AMAZING volunteer proceeded to unpack my bag, get me sunscreen, and help me when I was dropping things all over the place. This is also where I saw the most BADASS thing of the day - a fellow athlete BREAST PUMPING between the bike and run. Women are fucking magical beasts. I said goodbye to my unicorn helmet, popped on my cap and bib belt, took another puff on the inhaler and took a quick stop in the porta john - despite the rain, I'd had a really hard time peeing on the bike! 7:20 minutes

The 26.2 Run: I set out on the run feeling strong. It was hot, but I felt good and still had my legs. I was feeling pretty confident at this point about my prospects of finishing, with more than 8 hours to complete the marathon. I headed up the hill to the highway, where the first 4 miles of the course is in pretty much direct sunlight. Everyone was telling me I looked strong, and I felt it too.

I stuck with my plan to walk the aid stations. My primary concern at this point was keeping my body temperature low and maintain a heartrate under 140. When I hit the first aid station, I put ice down the front and back of my kit and on my head, splashed cold water on my face and drank some Gatorade Endurance and water. This would be my routine at pretty much every aid station until the sun went down! I was surprised that the miles were kind of just ticking away, and even with my stops I was maintaining a 10 minute mile or below.

The turn onto the Riverwalk - the only portion of the course I'd not seen - brought some relief from the sun. I was a little bit farty from everything that had gone into my body, but I still felt good. I walked the steep hill up Battery Place and was excited to see my family soon. Sure enough, there they were as I turned onto Veterans Bridge! I gave them all huge hugs, and let them I was sticking with my plan to walk the hills and aid stations, so they wouldn't worry if my next splits were slower.

And with that, I was off to Big Bad Barton and the dreaded hills on the backside of the course! To be honest, at this point I was kind of excited that they'd give me an excuse to walk.

Now let me tell you - people DREAD Barton. It's .4 four miles long, and you have to run it four times (two each direction) - but it's actually sort of fun, because it's a giant party. There's an aid station about halfway up it on the way out, and since my heart rate was low and I felt good, I decided to run to that and walk the rest of the way. I did the same on the hill by the golf course, took a quick and not very productive porta potty break around mile 11, and headed back toward the pedestrian bridge. As you cross it, you can hear people being called into the finish line. Throughout the bike and run, every time I saw the mile marker for the second loop while on the first, I'd been thinking to myself "you'll be SO happy to see that next time!" - but never more than here. And I knew my moment was coming.

At the halfway point, I stopped at special needs for a quick bite of pickle and grabbed my socks and a waffle in hopes I could hand it off to a family member (guys, Feetures are expensive!) But when I dropped them less than a mile later, I sacrificed another $18 to the triathlon gods. I was headed back out to the lonely, exposed highway stretch - and I remembered what my mom told me that morning: even if you're lonely out there, remember I'm with you. And I thought about her proud face and arms in the air when I'd seen her last.

People were still telling me I looked strong, but around mile 15 I started to feel a little light headed. My heart rate was still nice and low, so I had a feeling it was the start of a salt bonk. I decided to play it cautious. I'd had a great day so far, and by that point, I had all the time in the world - something like 6 hours to finish a half marathon. I sure as hell wasn't going to risk passing out and being taken off the course. So I walked a little bit, doubled up on my salt pills (I'd only taken 5 all day, at that point), and because I knew my stomach couldn't handle pretzels or chips - I put them in my mouth, sucked on them and spit them out (gross, I know, but it works!) By the time I was turning back onto the Riverwalk the day was cooling off and the shade offered even more respite. I didn't feel 100% back to normal, but it was getting better not worse, so I continued mostly running with a few extra walk breaks, using mile markers and minute markers to motivate myself.

/\ Still all smiles on the second loop, around mile 19.

I was excited to see my brother again at the bottom of the Battery Place. hill! We walked up it together as I grabbed some nutrition, and he told me I looked happier than anyone else he saw on the course. I told him I felt good, and it was true. By that point, I had absolutely no doubt I had another 10k in me. I gave him a big hug, told him I'd see him at the finish line, and headed back toward Barton.

At the aid station on Barton I had my first taste of liquid gold! I squealed when someone handed me the infamous chicken broth - offered at Ironman after dusk. I took a couple sips to test it out on the stomach and dang, that hit the spot. I definitely walked more of the second loop, though I was making a concerted effort to break a 5 hour marathon. Honestly, could I have pushed harder on the run? Absolutely! But it was much more fun to save some energy to dance to the music on Barton (it's a straight up party after dark! Though alas, no one heeded my request to play Hungry Eyes!), get my booty whipped by the sexy costumed ladies in the Girl Zone, thank and joke around with the volunteers at the aid stations and give out high fives left and right. And I wouldn't trade that experience for a few minutes off my time.

Before I knew it, I was back on the bridge and I could hear Tony on the microphone. Rounding that corner was incredibly emotional, as everyone had changed their tune from "you can do it" to "you did it!" and I knew that I had. The tunnel is long in Chattanooga, and try as I might to take it in, it went by way too fast! I did get to see and wave to my family, and had the wherewithal to back pedal so I wouldn't cross the finish line with the jerk from a relay team who sprinted past me at the last second (seriously dude, I hope I'm in all your photos).

/\ Serious glare right there.

As I crossed the finish line, I heard the words I've been waiting to hear since I signed up in May (and really, for much, much longer than that): "Johanna Elsemore, you are an Ironman. 4:48:33

Finish Line: I came through the finish line, and there was Courtney, face glowing with pride as he put my medal around my neck (he signed up on the spot to volunteer to give out medals (smart man right there!) I told him I'd had an absolutely perfect day, and he told me I'd crushed it. It was only then that I thought to ask what my time was - and I was flabbergasted when he told me I'd handily beat 13 hours, coming in with a final time of 12:38:08.

Going into the race, I had said that if everything went perfectly, I'd come in between 13-13.5 hours. I expected at time closer to 14 hours. I completed an Ironman in far less than double the time for my 70.3 in May, which really shows how much training I put in over the summer.

/\ THE BEST support crew!

After getting our bikes and gear bags back to the hotel, changing clothes, seeing off the family and getting Courtney stable (he was in pretty rough shape) we headed back to the finish line. It was the finish line of Ironman Maryland last year that inspired me to sign up for this. There truly is no party like an Ironman finish line party. And in true Courtney and Jo fashion, we closed down the bar - staying to welcome every last finisher home.

Quick selfie with Tony, who I thanked for being the only one ever to pronounce my name right at a major life moment (wrong at my graduation, wrong at my wedding), and for calling me home for my first Ironman.

I have so much gratitude. For the support of friends and family throughout training and in the lead up and aftermath of this race. For my family who came all the way to Chattanooga to watch me achieve this dream - they literally always show up. For my health, and the fact that I could even get to the start line. And most of all for my amazing partner, who trained with me even when it wasn't his preferred pace or distance, and hands down believed in me at least three times as much as I did.

I also have so much pride. I'm proud of how well I know my body, to be able to pace myself and finish with a strong time for a first timer, but also finish with a smile and the energy to keep on dancing. I'm proud of the discipline and hard work it took to get here, but perhaps more so of how I managed to maintain balance in my life - to continue to show up for birthdays and weddings and dinners, travel, and never stop playing as hard as I worked.

Now, the even bigger surprise I mentioned.

I'M GOING TO FUCKING KONA! I'm still in disbelief.

I swore before the race, after the race, the morning after the race morning that I was one and done. But then we went to the awards breakfast and roll down… and my 25th place finish was enough to qualify me for one of the Women in Tri slots (Chattanooga was allotted 100 extra this year, with 16 going to my age group - and 6 people didn't show up to take it - so I got the last slot for my age group).

Moral of the story, in life and in Ironman, you gotta show up to get the prize. This wasn’t even close to being on my radar when I signed up. I just wanted to finish happy and healthy. So, while usually I’m a woman of my word… you don’t turn down Kona. For an athlete of my caliber, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

[svtskneecaps]

in the rain

Yoon Jeonghan x (gender neutral) reader

Words: 3k

nothing says summer like spending hours upon hours in a car together. at least nothing’s boring with jeonghan

day 6 of a tct summer collection

(my masterlist)

There’s something about road trips, intoxicating and refreshing and energizing and addicting. There’s something about the ideal of cruising down the highway as the scenery flashes past quicker than you can see, rolling over the hills and saying hello to the horizon at the peaks.

And so what if the RV is old and can’t quite hold at 65 mph on any incline above 20 degrees, and so what if there are two beds and an air mattress for the five of you to split, and so what if Jeonghan blew half his meal budget on cheez its and peanut butter and Mingyu bought more noodles and meat and ingredients than you can fit in the cabinets for meals you probably can’t make on the RV stove, and Minghao brought wine and ritz crackers and Chan showed up with eight pounds of candy and about as much instant ramen, and so what if you almost ran out of gas in the dead space between towns and every time you turn things fall off shelves and counters and leave those in the back scrambling to make sure nothing breaks? Road trips are about the adventure (“Shut up, Jeonghan, they are!”) and a trip without complications is just driving next to cows, and what’s so special about that?

Jeonghan’s limbs had reportedly started to atrophy behind the wheel (“I’m petrifying into a tree, we have to switch out!”), so he’d pulled into a rest stop to allow time for everyone to stretch their legs in a way that wasn’t probably illegal. This particular rest stop, you notice, has several dinosaur statues lined up by the picnic tables, and there’s only one other group there, a rowdy family ferrying food to and from a camper parked nearby.

The younger three, naturally, gravitate directly for the dinosaurs, yelling, “Chan, it’s Chan!” (with the exception of Chan himself, who seemed split between joining the joke or pretending he didn’t know them). Mingyu swings himself onto the tallest of the brontosauri with infuriating ease.

“It’s not fair,” you complain, struggling to climb on while using the baby stegosaurus statue as a step. “He should be struggling the most! He doesn’t know how to use those limbs!”

Mingyu sticks his tongue out at you, scooting away. “Yes I do!”

“He’d make a good gas station balloon,” Minghao notes, a slight smirk on his face. Mingyu flips around to make a face at him too, but Minghao just raises the camera hanging around his neck and snaps a picture, his smile only growing.

Jeonghan eventually steps in and supports your foot so you can crawl onto the dinosaur’s back. By the time you pull him up behind you, the other three have finished with the brontosaurus and wandered over to the T-Rex.

“I can’t believe it, he’s not even going to take a picture.” You click your tongue. “What do we keep that kid around for?”

“Wine, mostly,” Jeonghan says.

You sigh. “He does have pretty good taste.” You take out your phone. “Well, who needs him anyway?”

It takes a little bit of maneuvering to get the dinosaur’s face in with both of yours. The sculptor made the dino’s face just a touch too tall for an easy photo op, but you manage. Jeonghan’s breath is hot on your neck as he presses against you, and you pretend it isn’t making your hair stand up.

And then the picture is taken and he slides off the side of the dinosaur, heading over to the T-Rex.

You stay on the brontosaurus for a moment, watching him laugh at Mingyu trying to lift Chan onto the dinosaur’s shoulders (his whole face lights up and his head goes back; he never laughs long but you can’t look away).

Then you go inside.

He comes up next to you while you’re watching the screen with the weather forecast, tracking the green blob of the storm swirling over the roads.

“What’s the verdict?” he asks.

“We’re gonna be driving into it,” you say, surveying it. “From what I can tell, it’s just rain, so we should be fine.”

“Should?”

You shrug. “If I say anything definitive I’m going to jinx it.” You keep your eyes on the map. “If it gets too bad we can find a spot to pull off the highway and wait for it to blow over.”

“We can’t just wait it out?”

“We’re running late as it is, I don’t know if we have that kind of time. Jihoon’s gonna be ticked if we don’t show and I refuse to get on his bad side.”

“Aw, he’s all talk.”

“I’ve heard Mingyu bring up the story of his guitar more times than I can count, I’d rather not get my own the first time I meet him in person.”

He snickers, and you glace to the side to see him looking at you. You turn your gaze back to the forecast and pretend your heartbeat is normal.

“Well, if he tries anything I’ll tell him the story of my old friends who crashed and died driving in a rainstorm,” Jeonghan says.

“You had friends who died?”

“Nope,” he says cheerfully, “but Jihoon can’t prove that.” He leans his head on your shoulder. “And I’d rather my answer not change because of some rainstorm, okay?”

“No worries,” you say, reaching over to run your fingers through his hair. “Quick but careful, that’s my motto. Nobody’s dying on this road trip.”

Death is not a good road trip adventure.

The clouds break as you follow the highway across the wide flat ranching fields. In seconds, the curvature of the earth’s horizon is masked by a curtain of rain. You flick on the headlights and slow down, sitting farther up in your seat as though that will let you see into the distance.

“Lucky this isn’t road trip season,” you say. You haven’t seen another car on the road for at least an hour.

“Yeah,” he echoes. “Lucky.”

His face is barely reflected in the window, distorting with each sweep of the wipers. You chance a glance. His knuckles are white on the armrest as he stares out the windshield.

“This is nothing,” you say. “It’s a baby storm. Did I ever tell you about the time I delivered pizzas during a hurricane?”

“Did they give you hazard pay?”

“Only like two bucks. Can you believe it?” You click your tongue. “Fuck Pizza Hut, am I right?”

He huffs something like a laugh, so you keep going. “Got a twenty dollar tip from this one guy who looked like he was in the middle of an intense dnd game, and I mean intense. Either that or it was a Lord of the Rings marathon, man looked like Gandalf.”

“But was it a good Gandalf?”

“I mean, I was convinced.”

“That’s not saying much, you were convinced by that kid in a hulk mask too.”

You gasp in mock outrage. “If I weren’t driving I’d smack you,” you threaten. “And he had the hands and bodysuit, too, he was the real deal! You couldn’t tell either!”

He actually snickers, but doesn’t argue. You’d both fought over the privilege of handing candy to the child, that last fall.

“And anyway, that wasn’t even the weirdest delivery I made that night.”

“I guess that makes sense, only the crazies call for a pizza in a hurricane.” His reflection in the window smiles, and even though you’re driving you dare to chance a glance; his face is lit up with a smile, his hand relaxed on the armrest. “Who was the weirdest?”

“Weird but wholesome, it was this older gentleman who spent like three minutes searching his wallet, I mean thank god he had a covered porch or I would’ve gotten even more soaked. His wife gave me these plums for a tip; I looked them up and it turns out they’re actually illegal, it was wild.”

He clicks his tongue. “You got tipped in illegal plums and you didn’t even share them with me?”

“This was before I met you guys. Those plums were long gone by the time I was in a spot to share them with you.” The pounding rain has died down enough that you feel confident enough to peel your hand away from the wheel to pat his thigh. “Don’t worry, if I get tipped in any other illegal foods I’ll be sure to share.”

He swats your hand away, but he’s laughing.

It’s still raining when you pull into the campground, but not pouring. A pleasant sprinkle, really. Jeonghan still complains about it as he and the others try to give you directions to back into the spot. Most of the directions conflict, and based on the way Minghao keeps shaking his head at the others, you probably could’ve been backed into the spot 30 minutes ago if not for-- well, whatever competition is going on behind you. Oh well.

By the time you finally throw the camper into park and get the awning pushed out, Mingyu has already gotten the portable grill out of the cabinet and set up outside, although he’s having trouble with the lighter. The RV is always stocked with six or seven of the stick lighters, but they’re pretty much guaranteed to be on their last dregs no matter when you try to use them. He’s already halfway through the collection, his brow furrowed in concentration as he pulls the spark trigger over and over, the flame only catching for a few seconds.

Jeonghan skips over, calling your name. “Come on,” he all but whines, “let’s go explore!”

“Weren’t you the one who was just complaining about how wet you were getting?” You glance out at the picnic table, which is still getting rained on even as Minghao and Chan struggle to drag it under cover.

“That was just because you were all safe and dry in the RV.” He wraps his arms around you and rubs his dripping hair against your shirt.

“Rude!” you yelp, pushing him away, but you’re laughing, and so is he. You huff, crossing your arms. “Well I was going to, until you started using me as your towel.”

“Well you’re all wet now, you can get a little more wet!”

There’s a barely a damp spot on your shoulder, but he’s got a shit eating expression and even that lights up his face.

“Oh no,” you say, “I’m soaked.”

He grins and takes you by the arm, dragging you fully into the rain. “We’ll be back in an hour,” he calls.

“Text me if you find the bathrooms,” Chan hollers back.

There’s a surprising amount of other campers parked around. A few have adults sitting on folding chairs, outside under an awning, cans in their hands. They wave cheerfully as you pass.

“That’s probably the bathroom,” you note, pointing at the building. It’s so dirty on the outside that you wonder if maybe it would be better in the long run to just take turns in the RV’s shower; most outdoor bathrooms like this are pretty gross inside.

“I’ll text Channie.” Jeonghan takes out his phone, bowing his head to block the screen and types out the message. You giggle watching his wet fingers slip across the screen. He bats distractedly in your general direction, finally managing to land a hit only once the message is sent, his phone in his pocket once again.

You find a playground at the bend in the road, where it doubles back to wind around to the exit. Jeonghan shouts, “Race you!” and takes off across the slick grass.

“False start!” you yell back, and even though he has way too much of a lead for you to catch up, you still take off after him. You see his foot slip out from underneath him once or twice, but the speed of his run keeps him from falling entirely. It makes for a funny picture either way, and you find yourself slipping as you laugh.

He seizes one of the swings, all but launching himself into the air. You skirt around his feet, ducking under his hand as he reaches out, as though to pat your head on the way by. There’s a puddle of water in the swing, but you’re already soaked from the rain that patters steadily onto your head, so what’s a little more?

Still, you wipe it off before you sit down.

Within moments, you’ve caught up to his altitude, the height of each swing leaving you floating at the peak before gravity takes over, jolting you onto the seat again.

“You’re better than I thought,” he says, flying past you, going forward as you swing back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Your head follows him as you swing by again.

“Nothing.” You hear the grin in his voice.

“I’ll have you know, I was the swingset champion in every school and every camp I ever went to.”

“How many schools did you go to that had a swingset?”

“Sir that is entirely beside the point.”

His laugh rings out. “Right, right, of course.” Rain hits your face as you swing forward (or maybe your face hits the rain?). “I suppose that means you’ve gone all the way around the top bar before?”

“Of course,” you say. “And I nailed a kid in the head with a paper airplane from the peak of a jump off the swing.”

That seems to pique his interest. “Yeah? How many times did you manage that?”

“Once, and then they sent me to the office bc the kid started crying, but it was a good once.”

“If I gave you my shoe, would you be able to throw it to me from the swing?”

You almost slip off the swing. “Jeonghan I’m not going to throw a shoe at your head!”

“Not at my head! Just, to me. Like a gentle toss, so I can catch it and no one receives any bodily harm on the road trip.”

You breathe out. That makes more sense. Bodily harm is not a good road trip adventure.

He digs his feet into the trenches below the swing to stop his momentum, stumbling forward across the playground. He tosses a couple woodchips at you when you giggle, before slipping his shoe off.

“Dude, you’re gonna get your foot all muddy and then what?”

He yanks off his sock. “Then you’ll have to carry me to the RV sink.”

“Or I’ll hose you down in the yard; I saw a couple spigots on the way over and those bitches are icy cold.”

He wipes the shoe in the grass before lining up the shot, planting his foot on the ground. “Alright, catch!”

He misses.

When you’re done laughing at him, he tosses it again, this time actually managing to get it to you, even though it lands kind of wildly against your lap. You lean back for a few good swings, regaining the altitude you lost from the distraction of the catch and the laughter.

“Ready?”

Your first throw goes wild. The second nails him in the chest. The third he actually manages to catch.

By the tenth you’ve graduated to trick shots. He leaned over the playground equipment nearby and caught it. He tossed it to you from under his leg, and you caught it. You threw it over the bar and under the bar and with your nondominant hand and backwards and he caught it again and again.

“Alright, time for the jump.” You adjust your grip on the swing.

“You’re sure this is safe?”

“Of course it is.” You gesture for him to toss you the shoe, which he does. No trick shots that time. “I’ve done it before, remember?”

He looks oddly worried as he resumes his position on the ground a short distance away.

“Relax babe,” you say, “I got this.”

He straightens up at the nickname, a smile flashing across his face. “Alright,” he says, rubbing his hands together. “Whenever you’re ready, babe.”

(you like when he calls you that)

You take two swings, building up the momentum. He takes two steps, eyes focused on you.

You let go.

The shoe leaves your hand, and your feet hit the ground, and then the woodchips slide and your balance is lost and your hands slam into the ground too.

He calls your name.

You huff out a breath, and then another, processing.

“Are you okay?” His hand is on your shoulder, and his eyes dart over you as he checks for injuries.

“Totally fine,” you say. “Did you catch the shoe?”

He huffs, half exasperated and half amused. “That’s your priority?”

“Listen dude, I didn’t just make the sickest trickshot of the year just for you to drop the shoe cause I broke my ankle.”

He shoves your shoulder and you clutch it like he’s wounded you, dropping to the ground with a grin.

“Of course I caught it,” he says. “I would’ve caught you too but you jumped the wrong way.”

You scoff. “Alright, that’ll be the next trick shot.”

For a second you think he might actually be considering it, but his phone rings. He answers, listening for a few seconds before moving it away.

“Mingyu got the grill working,” he says to you. “Chan added helpfully from the background that if we’re done kissing we can come back for food.”

You raise your eyebrow. “We’re kissing?”

He shrugs. “If you want.”

He says it flippantly, but his eyes trail over your lips.

You stand up, helping him up after. Your hands linger. He’s still looking, and you find your eyes drifting too.

You lean in, quickly, before you can change your mind, and press a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth. He freezes, and then pulls you close, a real kiss this time. It’s like a fire exploding, and the chill of the rain is forgotten. You can hear a faint “Ew!” from the phone still held in Jeonghan’s hand, and you feel him smirk against your mouth.

You break apart, staring.

And then you take off like a shot across the grass. “Race you!”

You hear his footsteps chasing after you. “Hey, no fair! I’ve only got one shoe!”

Throwing your head back, you laugh, the rain slamming into your face.

(like a call and response, his laughter reaches your ears. it sounds like a sunrise)

[sarahegerton96]

Our Perfect Little Christmas Gift

This is for the most amazing girl I know @primaba11erina,this is part 2 of Field Trip, hope you like it, sorry if there's any mistakes I edited it as best I could, hope you like it, enjoy babes :)

Summary: This part takes place 7 1/2 months after Dennis and Y/N find that there going to be parents, its Y/N last day at work before she leaves for maternity leave, looking forward to the birth of their of their first born and so much more...

Y/N waddles into the kitchen,to rummage through the fridge looking for something to satisfy her midnight cravings,she sighs in frustration and slams the door making the contents rattle inside. The noise of the door slamming startles Dennis awake, he rolls over in the bed to discover your not there and goes to investigate. He enters the kitchen to see you sitting at the breakfast bar crying, he hurries over wrapping you in a bear hug, "Y/N babe whats wrong?" he coo's in your ear. "It's nothing babe honestly, just hormones" you sniffle, "Please babe tell me whats wrong" he asks persuasively, you break down in tears. "There's no food in the house" you sobs into his chest. "Ssh it's okay sweetheart" he soothes running his fingers through your hair  attempting to calm you down, "Would you like me to make you something to eat sweetheart?" he questions softly, "No its okay, I know what I want now babe" she says beaming up at him with a mischievous smile plastered across her face fluttering her eyelashes at him. "Oh god why do I not like where this is going or that  it requires me to go on a wild goose chase to track down your cravings" he says with a half playful half serious smile on his face. "Well you did help put him/her in here so you kinda have to help feed him/her" you say as you rub you ever growing baby bump. Dennis rolls his eyes and shakes his head chuckling  as he goes to pull on track pants and a t-shirt as he knows he's been sent out to source your cravings, he returns from the bedroom,"What you craving babe?" he says as he grabs his car keys and phone. "Sushi, beef rolls to be precise" you say as wrap your arms around him kissing him on the cheek and thanking him with the biggest smile plastered on your face, content that your cravings are soon going to be fulfilled. "Anything to keep my baby happy" he says as he makes his way to the door, "What would I do without babe" you say as he just sends a wink you way and he out the door on a sushi hunt.

You make you way to the bedroom to wait for Dennis to get back with your sushi, you go to the bathroom and then head back to the bed to lay down and try get comfortable and relieve some of the pressure in your stomach, you finally get comfortable enough and lay there rubbing your bump talking to the baby, as your talking to your bump you notice you eyes getting heavy, you close you eyes to rest them for a minute, you drift into a peaceful sleep. "babe I'm back" Dennis shouts as he comes through the door with your sushi in a bag thankful for the late night opening sushi bar not to far from your house, "Babe" he calls again when he gets no answer the second time round he goes to the bedroom to find you stretched out across the bed lightly snoring with your hand placed on your bump, "Seriously woman, you make me go fetch you sushi to come back and find you asleep?" he says to himself as he lightly laughs making his way to the kitchen to put your sushi in the fridge, he turns out all the lights and makes sure the house is locked up and makes his way back the bedroom, he strips himself of his pants and top, knocks off the bedroom light and gently climbs into the bed beside you careful not to wake you, he covers you with  the duvet, kisses you on the forehead, wraps his arms around you gently rubbing your bump. "Goodnight sweetheart, I love yous" he says as he drifts off to sleep.

You wake up the morning to the sound of your alarm going off you, you knock your alarm off placing your phone back on the nightstand, getting up and hurrying to the bathroom to pee AGAIN for the god knows how many times that night/morning. After going toilet you turn the shower on and step in letting the hot water wash over you relaxing all your aching muscles, being pregnant was really taking its toll on your body from the aches and pains to the stretch marks and not to mention the crippling pressure in your abdomen and your nether regions as the baby grew bigger and now that he/she was head down the pressure was more intense. You finished rinsing yourself of your scarlet blossom scent body wash, turned the shower off and attempted to step out of the shower failing miserably. "Shit I'm stuck" you mumbled to yourself in annoyance knowing you were going to have to call Dennis for help which meant waking him up an hour earlier than he had to be up. "Dennis babe I'm stuck can you come help me" you shouted from the shower, hoping it would wake him...nothing...crap. I stirred in my sleep as I thought I heard Y/N call me listening out to see if I heard correctly or if it was just a dream, "Dennis" I heard Y/N call again a sense of urgency in her voice I shot up out of the bed thinking the worst that the baby was coming early I hurried over to the bathroom where I heard her voice coming from. "Y/N are you okay, is the baby coming?" I said in a worry fearing the worst, "Yes and no and no the baby is not coming" I said "What's wrong then?" he questioned as he slowly opened the door peering around it seeing me standing there "I'm stuck" I replied as I kept my head down to embarrassed to look at Dennis. My head shot up as I heard him chuckle "It's not funny" I snapped at him my frustration and embarrassment growing more "I'm sorry but c'mon babe lighten up it's a bit funny" he said as he handed me a towel for my hair and my robe from the back of the door. I wrapped my hair up and slipped the robe on. "Shut up and help me out before I'm late for my last for my last day of work before maternity leave" I said stretching my hands out for him to help, he took my hands helping me out over the edge of the bath, "How exactly did you manage to get stuck?" he questioned curiously "I was trying to get out and was too afraid of slipping as the floor of the bath was wet" you reply sheepishly "Ah I see well lets gets you dried and dressed my little pumpkin" he says as he kisses your temple helping you out to the bedroom.

"I'm going down to get the coffee on, follow me down when your ready pumpkin" Dennis says as he walks out of the room towards the kitchen, you waddle over to your closet to look for clothes to wear today, you check the weather on your phone to see that its forecast to rain, you decide on some black jeans a Halloween themed maternity top that you had bought but had yet to wear and a hoodie which you paired with black converse, once you were dressed you headed downstairs and joined Dennis in the kitchen. "You look beautiful babe as always" Dennis says as he hands you a cup of decaf coffee, "thank you, do you like my top?" you ask as you unzip you your hoodie to reveal it to him, "I love it" he says chuckling as he reads your top, "though you would get a kick out it" you reply as you sip you coffee(pun intended). "What would you like for breakfast?" Dennis questions with a smirk on his face hinting about him having to go on a sushi hunt to satisfy your cravings last night to discover you asleep when he got back. Knowing exactly what he was hinting at you laughed nervously apologizing for sending him on a sushi hunt last night "hmm I think i'll have some beef rolls" you say laughing as Dennis joined in with you, "sounds perfect babe". After you and Dennis ate and he teased you about falling asleep on him you noticed it was time to leave, "have a good day at work babe, we love you"  you said as you kissed Dennis goodbye rubbing you bump "you too pumpkin, I love you's too" he said  as he made his was to the bathroom to shower before getting ready to head to work himself.

                     **The top you wear**

Your final day of work before maternity leave went smoothly, you had parents and students wishing you good luck with the birth and when the baby arrives, you thanked them for there well wishes and for the beautiful hamper that they had all got you. Once you had packed up your room you made you way towards the staff room to say goodbye to everyone, as you walked in everyone shouted "SURPRISE" you jumped  not expecting it and saw they had the room decorated in pink and blue baby decorations and baby shower balloons, "Aww you guys you's didn't have to do this for me, this is so sweet, thank you's so much" you gushed with tears in you eyes ready to cry from the sweet surprise and the hormones, "don't you start crying on us, you'll set us all off" Ms Madden said trying to lighten the mood, "No promises" you say half sniffling half chucking. Everyone had bought you beautiful gifts for the baby and for yourself after you had the baby. "Thank you all so much this was so unexpected but so kind and I appreciate all the beautiful gifts" you say hugging everyone  as you try to hold back the tears, Ms.Madden helped you to your car with all you gifts, one loaded you gave her one final hug and thanked her again and you were on your way home, hopefully to relax for the next 6 weeks until the baby arrived.

***The hamper you class got you***

You arrive home and head inside to relax with a cup of coffee as you mentally prepare yourself for the task of unloading the car and putting the gifts away in the nursery. After sitting down for an hour to relax you look at the clock noticing it was 3pm and that Dennis would be home between 4:30-5pm, so you better get a move on you thought to yourself as you put your cup in the sink and made you way to the car retrieving the gifts, the first trip to the car was for the hamper the 2nd and 3rd trip was for the bags of gifts you received from the other teachers and staff members. "Finally" you say placing the last bag on the floor of the nursery, you spend the next 45 minutes unpacking bags and putting the gifts away. You sit of the sofa curled up with a bowl of steaming hot mac and cheese with extra mozzarella melted over the top and two slices of buttered bread watching straight from the heart while waiting for Dennis to come home. "Babe I'm home" Dennis calls from the door, "I'm in here babe" you shout back from your spot on the sofa. He walks in and see's you all curled up on the sofa and smiles at you, "You look comfy, how was your last day?" he asks as he sits down beside you wrapping you in his arms kissing you on the cheek, "I am very comfy even more now that I'm in your arms, it was amazing babe you should see the beautiful hamper the kids in my class got me and all the beautiful gifts I got from other teachers and staff members, they threw me a mini surprise baby shower, it was so thoughtful of them" you gush as you told Dennis all about your day, "That was so sweet of them babe, you can show me all the gifts in a bit" he said.

When he sat down you could feel the erection bursting at the seams of Dennis' trousers. You pushed the thought out of your head for a second. "I'm just going to put my bowl in the sink, I'll be right back" you say as you stood up  purposely brushing off his erection slightly and walked to the kitchen. As soon as you turned the corner to the kitchen, Dennis quickly removed his shirt and pulled himself free of the restraints of his pants, sighing in relief as his hand wrapped around his very hard throbbing dick, he thought it would be a good idea to use the cock-ring that you had  bought him for Valentines day to spice things up a bit before the baby came along. He pulled over on his way home and slipped the ring on himself, hoping you would be in the mood for some fun when he got home.

He closed his eyes and pictured your lips around him, sucking him off as if he were an ice-cream. He bit his lip as he tried to suppress a moan. When you came back your mouth dropped open in shock as you say your fiance sprawled out on the sofa wanking himself off. The sight of him made you bite your lip and your panties dampen, god he looked good enough to eat you thought to yourself as you made your way towards him. He was so engrossed with pleasure that he didn't notice you standing right in front of him. "Need a hand with that big boy" you cooed seductively  in his ear and tugged at his earlobe.  

His eyes shot open and his head snapped up in your direction, he was panting heavily and sweat was beginning to form on his body, he just nodded as he bit his lip unable to speak from the pleasure. You drop to your knees in front of him, take his throbbing erection from his grasp and pump him slowly, you bring you mouth closer bringing the tip of his now oozing cock past your lips and suck gently, taking him deeper in your mouth bobbing your head slightly, you release him with a pop running your tongue teasingly along the bulging vein of the underneath of his cock, "Shit babe that feels amazing, don't stop" he moans out tangling his fingers in your hair.

You take him back in your mouth hollowing your cheeks bobbing you head up and down quickly, deepthroating him, you gag when you feel his tip hit the back of your throat, causing your throat to clench around him, "Shit babe do that again, that felt ama-" you cut him off before he could finish his sentence, gagging around him again causing him to buck his hips into your mouth fucking your mouth, you continued to sloppily and harshly suck him off, bringing him closer and closer to the edge, his his thighs began to shake ferociously and you knew he was close to cumming, you hummed around sending vibrations through his sensitive cock, you looked up at him through your eyelashes giving him your most innocent look while massaging his ball and that was it, he was a moaning, panting sweating mess cumming down your throat, a string of profanities along with the most sexiest moans you've ever heard left his mouth as his grip on your hair tightened, you became even more hornier as you watched him crumble at your touch, you made sure to swallow every drop, give him one last suck for good measure before releasing him from you mouth with a POP.

"Shit babe you have no idea how incredible that was" he says grabbing your hands helping you up to stand in front of him and kissing you passionately, tasting himself on your tongue, yous both moan into the kiss never wanting it to stop. "Your turn" he says seductively as he gently lays you down on the sofa, pulling your jeans and panties down your legs in one swift motion, he kisses from your ankle up you calf, then to the inside of your thigh playfully nipping at your thigh, moving his face to where you needed him the most. You feel his warm wet tongue come in contact with you clit, "Shit right ther-" you were cut off by him harshly sucking on your clit, tracing figure of eight on your clit with the tip of his tongue. He continued his pleasurable assault on your clit, rubbing two fingers up and down your lips coating them in your arousal gently sliding them into you causing you arch your back and moan out his name "Dennis babe please I need more" just as the words left your lips his pace quickened curling his fingers slightly brushing off that sensitive spot inside you making you curl your toes. "Keep going don't stop I'm close" you moaned out your orgasm approached quicker than you would have liking but so intense at the same time, the knot in your stomach tightened "DENNIS OH GOD YES" you practically scream out as your orgasm washed over your body in waves as you convulsed around Dennis' fingers never wanting it to stop, you tugged on his hair causing him to moan against your now very sensitive clit. "Shit babe that was so hot and intense" he said as he pulled away licking the remains of your arousal from lips.

"Stand up and follow me babe" he cooed in you ear as he reached his hands out to help you up, he walked round the back of the sofa and you followed. "Bend over, legs apart" he said in a stern but yet incredibly sexy voice, you bent over the back of the sofa supporting yourself on it with your legs spread wide like you were requested to. "You okay babe ? you comfortable enough?" he questioned in a softer tone than before it amazes you how he can go from dominant to soft and caring in 0.1 seconds. You bit your lip nodding not trusting you voice. "I need to hear it babe I need your consent" he spoke in a deep raspy voice. "Yes" you breathed out barely audible but loud enough for Dennis to hear.

He moved round behind you, admiring the way your back dipped , the curves of your hips and ass as he stroked his hard on biting his lip thinking of all the things me was planning on doing to you. "Have I ever told you babe how fucking sexy you are, pregnancy suits you so well, jesus those hips and that ass and not to mention these gorgeous tits" he says and he leans over you whispering in you ear squeezing you tits and pinching your nipples, tracing his hands over your bump rubbing it protectively as he places light chaste kisses across your shoulder blades and down the middle of your spine and where your back dips just before your ass. He brings his hands to your hips and around to you ass squeezing, spanking you firmly but still taking his time to be loving and caressing, you feel him rub his fingers over your folds  teasing your entrance you were just about protest when you felt his fingers being replaced by his warm wet tip oozing with pre-come, he gently pushes into you careful not to hurt you or the baby, once he was fully inside he waited a few seconds to let you adjust before beginning to move.

"Den please do something" you moaned out at the feeling of him filling you up so good and deep, "Shit babe your so tight, hang on if I move yet I'll cum straight away"   he moans back. A few seconds later he slowly starts to withdraw only to push straight back in again after a couple of thrusts he begins to set a steady but pleasurable pace, both you and Dennis are a moaning mess, his speed quickens and you can feel your second orgasm approaching, he reaches up grabbing your hair pulling slightly not to much to hurt you just enough to heighten you pleasure. "Shit babe I'm close" you moan out "Me too, cum for me babe, Let the neighbors know who's making you feel this good"he moaned in to your ear, with his words you began to convulse around him, you legs shaking, you began to see stars as you experience the most earth shattering orgasm you've ever had, your orgasm set Dennis off as seconds later you felt his hips begin to stutter as he came with a string of moans falling from his lips, he pulled out of you and watched his cum drip from your folds as after waves of your orgasm crashed through you body, your body still trembling.

"Shit babe I should get you pregnant more often, I don't know about you but that was the most intense and incredible orgasm I've ever had" Dennis panted out still trying to catch his breath, "Me too" was all you could manage to get out as you were also trying to regain yourself. "How about a nice hot shower and curl up in bed for the rest of the day with junk food, take away and movies?" Dennis questioned wrapping his arms around you kissing you on the top of the head, "That sounds perfect babe. That's exactly what yous done for the rest of the day after showering, you's curled up in each others arms watching Halloween movies only leaving the bed to go toilet or answer the door for the takeaway.

                                    ***The week of your due date***

The week of your due date had finally arrived to say you were relieved was an understatement, you were crippled with backache, heartburn, sore boobs and horrible pressure from the baby's head being so low but it was all worth it as you know you were going to get a beautiful baby at the end and you were at the finishing line. You sat on the sofa in your pj's with a big cup of hot chocolate resting on your bump the fire blazing, watching The Santa Claus 3 waiting for Dennis to come home. It was his last day until after the New Year and you were so excited to spend time with him over the next few weeks especially since 2 were about to become 3, you were finally going to have a little family and just the thought of that made you smile goofily down at your bump and you felt your little one kick. "Babe I'm home, let the Christmas festivities begin" he shouted as he rounded the the corner stopping in his tracks smiling as he see's you. "Hows my 2 favorite people" he says as he sits down beside you taking a sip of your hot chocolate, "Hey get your own" you pouted "Aww don't be like that babe, how have you been feeling today? " he questioned as he rubbed your bump. "Meh I ache all over and this child of yours is using my bladder as a play toy" you joked "Aww its almost over babe and we'll have him/her in our arms, hopefully before Christmas too" he said as he cuddled up beside you watching the movie.

"I've a great idea babe why don't we make a family of snowmen" Dennis said like a kid in a candy shop as he jumped up off the sofa. You roll your eyes at him "I'm too pregnant, why don't you make them for me" you say with hope in your voice "No babe come on it will be fun, we can then just chill out order take away and watch Christmas movies all night while snuggled up in bed" he says pleading with puppy dog eyes to convince you "Fine" you say giving in to his antics how could you refuse those pleading eyes. A hour and 3 snowmen later you and Dennis make your way back inside to heat up with steaming hot cup of hot chocolate while yous wait for your pineapple pizza to arrive. After the food arrives yous make your way up to the bedroom curl up together pigging out on pizza and other junk food while watching Christmas movies. Halfway through the movie Dennis starts to sing to you. He begins to sing a beautiful Welsh song to you as he's got his arms wrapped around you rubbing your bump staring deeply into your blue eyes with his green ones you feel your heart swells, your eyes begin to water and the baby starts kicking like mad at the sound of Dennis' voice. Dennis beams with happiness as he feels the kicks and starts to tear up himself as he continues to sing, once he's finished you speak up. "That was so incredibly beautiful Den" you say with tears of emotion rolling down your cheeks. "That you sweetheart, I'm glad you liked it" he says gently wiping your tears away and sweetly kissing your lips. Things started to get quite heated and handsy before you knew it you were naked on top of Dennis grinding your hips into him boxer covered erection, just as you bent down to kiss him you felt a pop and a gush of water. Halting your actions you cautiously get off Dennis. "Are you okay babe ?" he says noticing your change in mood all of a sudden. "Don't freak out, but I think my waters just broke" you say calmly "What are you sure babe, will the baby be okay its not your due date yet" he says slightly panicked but then  realizes he has to remember his paramedic training and stay calm and keep you calm. "I'm sorry Den but my waters broke on you" you say to him slightly amused and embarrassed. "Seriously you peed on me ?"he questioned while chuckling, "No Den my waters broke, I did not piss myself you sat in defense, "Relax babe I was joking, lets get you to the hospital yeah?" he said while getting up and getting changed "yes please babe " you say as you get your hospital bag from the nursery and wait for Dennis to find his car keys.

                                     ****The Welsh song he sings to you****

Just as you and Dennis arrived at the hospital and were checking in you were hit with an overwhelming contraction, you doubled over in pain and grab Dennis' hand squeezing for dear life, "Shit babe that hurts" he says and you continue to squeeze  "Well this ain't a walk in the park either you know " you replied through gritted teeth while you rub your bump trying to sooth the pain, the pain eventually eases enough for you to stand back up straight and hopefully finish getting checked in and into a room before the next contraction hits. Dennis stands there rubbing his hand trying to get the sensation back in it after you  have nearly broke it.

                                                ****10 Hours later****  

"Deep breaths babe, in through the nose and out through the mouth, you got this I promise I'm right here beside you, five more minutes of pain for a lifetime of happiness, 3 more big pushes " Dennis encourages. You close your eyes and take a deep breath and  push 3 more times and that's when you hear the sweetest sound you've every heard, the sound of your son crying, you open your eyes and are met with the sight of the  most beautiful, precious little bundle of joy. You turn to Dennis to who is a blubbering mess while staring you your son. Would you like to do the honors daddy the midwife says while handing Dennis a scissors, Dennis just nods and cuts the cord. "I love you so much babe" he says kissing you sweetly while the midwife cleans and wraps up the baby " Happy Christmas Daddy" the midwife says as she hands Dennis your son. "Hey there little one, your absolutely beautiful and perfect just like your mammy" he coos down at him with tears in his eyes. You look to your fiance and your son with tears streaming down your face  and your heart swells at how perfect your little family is, nothing could every compare to this moment and how you feel right now. "How about we let mammy have a hold hmm" he says as he passes the baby to you, you look down to him and he opens his eyes and looks up to you, "Hi there my sweat pea, I'm your mammy" you say, just then the midwife asks you's have a name picked for him. "Ryleigh Andrew Severs" you's both say at the same looking to each other and down to your son she just nods and writes it down. "Congratulations to yous both, he's perfect and can I just say he's officially the first baby I've every delivered on Christmas Day" the midwife says and leaves the room to let yous have some family time together. "Happy Christmas Daddy" you say to Dennis "Happy Christmas to you too Mammy" Dennis  says back. Our perfect little Christmas present.

THE END

Part 3 coming soon!!!!

[kpoppedlovely]

Secret Admirer

Type: Fluff

Pairing: Yeosang x Reader

Word count: 2,217

Summary: You had what you thought was the worst day ever. Little did you know, your day would have a happy ending with your neighbor Yeosang.

A/N: This was inspired by a bad day I had. Sorry that it’s long. I have a tendency to get into little tangents and put too much detail. Hopefully you enjoy! <3

P.S. If you see a mistake or have constructive criticisms, feel free to message me and let me know what you think. Thank youuu

Today had been the worst day ever. It had all started during last night’s storm. You had fallen asleep to the sound of the rain pattering on your window, along with the podcast running on your phone. You plugged up your phone to keep it from dying over night but, unfortunately, the universe had other plans. During the night, while you were sleeping peacefully with images of unicorns and your hot neighbor from down the hall (don’t ask), the storms had gotten worse and taken out a transformer, knocking out your whole buildings electricity. You, sleeping unfazed, slept through it all. Your poor, little phone was not as lucky. It died early in the morning from no electricity to charge it.

Luckily for you, your internal systems had a fairly good alarm clock, waking you up what you thought was fairly early in the morning. Little did you know that you were running late for work. You rolled out of bed, still groggy, and walked to grab some food from your kitchen. You seemed to not have much, glancing at the ever growing list of groceries jotted on the white board on your fridge. You had been too busy with work lately to do any extensive shopping. You settled on a bagel with some cream cheese. Popping the bagel half into the toaster, you walked to the fridge to grab the cream cheese and waited the 3 minutes for your bagel. Standing in front of the toaster, your bagel popped up and scared you but also…. Wait a second, you remembering something important.

WORK!!! You scrambled through the kitchen to your bedroom. Launching yourself onto your bed, you grabbed your phone, hitting it off the nightstand. Frustrated, you huffed and reached for your phone, resulting in you falling and hitting your head on the floor. Clutching your head, hoping to relieve some of the pain, finally got a hold of your phone but to no avail. Pressing the power button did no good to reveal the current time. Pissed off, and now panicking, you ran back to the kitchen hoping the appliances would show the time. Nope. Flashing 3:00, you deduced the storm must have gotten worse and knocked out your power. Lucky for you, you had a battery operated clock in your little office adjacent to your room. When you went to grab the clock, you gulped down some of your nervousness and somehow prayed it wasn’t too late after you needed to be at work. Time slowed down as you brought the wooden analog clock to your face. The clock showed 7:00, 30 minutes after you needed to be at work. You set the clock down to run to your closet to find clothes to wear. As you were throwing clothes around your room, you were also getting your bag and purse together with what you needed. You also plugged your phone into your travel battery pack. Running around your apartment, you finally managed to get everything for work and ran out the door, hoping you didn’t get fired for this.

You didn’t get fired. However, it seemed that everything that could’ve gone wrong, did. Every taxi you tried to flag down with your flailing arms passed you by. When you eventually did get one and thought you were on your way, there was traffic. When your phone had charged enough to call your boss, his line was busy. He eventually chewed you out for being late. The following events stacked and stacked to further ruin your day. Co-workers complaining, forgetting your lunch, an earring coming undone and falling into the toilet, forever lost. It was only when your work day was over that you felt relieved to be going home. The weather had other plans. Since your phone was dead that morning, you couldn’t check the weather to see that it was going to rain again that evening. Failing to see this forecast, added with your scrambling about your apartment, left your handy dandy umbrella to be left high and dry at your apartment. Starting to walk home, you had felt something on your head. You scratched it and continued walking, believing it to be a bug perhaps. A few moments later, another mysterious feeling on your head. Touching your head, you felt something…. Wet? You looked to the sky to see darkening clouds. Drip by drop, rain quickly poured down on top of your uncovered head. You ran to the nearest covering, planning on how you make it home. You saw no way to get a cab in this condition, put your bag over your head and made a run for it. Almost nearing your apartment doors, you had tripped on the pavement. Laying down on the wet pavement, you felt your face get hot, tears threatening to fall from your eyes. You picked yourself up, limping to the doors to dry safety. Finally inside the building, you looked down at your leg to see a scraped knee and blood trickling down. You sighed and walked towards the elevator. Pressing the button for the 4th floor, you waited. Waited, waited, and waited, face getting hotter and the urge to cry getting harder to hold back. As you stood there, your soaked body getting colder, you saw someone exit the stairwell beside you informing you that the elevator isn’t working at the moment. You sighed again, thanking the man, and walked towards and up the stairs to the 4th floor. Trudging down the hall, you saw your front door. A few more seconds, you thought. A few more seconds and I’ll be home. Finally at your door, you took out your keys to keys to insert them into the lock. And of course, what of course would happen at this very moment, your keys drop to the floor. You hadn’t noticed that because you were wet and cold from the rain, your hand was shaking and ultimately dropped your keys.

And like that, you dropped to the floor as quickly as your keys did. Letting the tears finally escape and pour out, like a dam releasing water, you slouched over and continued to cry. Over your crying, you didn’t hear the door down the hallway open. But what you did notice was a warm, fluffy blanket being draped around your cold body. Tears clouded your vision so you couldn’t see who it was at first. They grabbed your keys and opened your apartment door. You heard the deep voice that you recognized. He spoke softly. “Let’s get you inside, hm?” He lifted you up and you were brought face to face with your neighbor, Yeosang Kang. He smiled at you with kind eyes, carrying you bridal style into your apartment. You had quite a crush on him, which caused you to hide your face in this moment of weakness. You spoke your apologies to him as he carried you to your couch, setting you down ever so gently as if you weighed nothing to him. “How about you go take a hot shower, put on some dry clothes, and I’ll order us some food, okay?” You couldn’t make eye contact with him but nodded your head, getting up to go to your room as he pulled out his phone to make an order. As you got to your bathroom, you turned your shower faucet to release the water, waiting for it to get hot. You went to look at yourself in your mirror, embarrassed by how you look: makeup running, hair disheveled and wet, clothes flat against your skin. You were beating yourself up for looking like this in front of Yeosang. Trying to put that embarrassment aside, you derobed and stepped into the hot, cascading water and started to feel instantly better. You began to forget about the whole day as you washed your hair, body, and scrubbed clean all of the negative energy of the day.

Stepping out of the shower and into your room, you saw the mess you created that morning and the emotions started coming back. You shook the feeling from your head and cleaned up a bit and put on some warm yoga pants, a tank top, and your favorite sweater. You dried your hair, brushed it out and put it up into a bun. Walking out into the living room, you smelled delicious cooked beef and instantly remembered that Yeosang was in your apartment. Your face went flush, walking into your kitchen to see food set up on the island in the middle of the room. He had set up two spots with plates, bowls, and cups with drinks. You watched him walk around your kitchen, trying to find the necessary silverware and dishes for whatever he was planning. You bit your lip to try and contain your excitement about your crush being in your apartment. He finally turned around and saw you standing there. He smiled and pushed back his hair, you swear he seemed to glow.

“Feel better?” he asked, walking towards you now. Your face got hot as he approached so you looked down to hide your flush cheeks, nodding as a response.

“Well, I’m glad,” he said with a slight chuckle at your shy demeanor, standing now right in front of you. “When I saw you rush out this morning, I got worried that something was wrong.” Worried? About me? You didn’t have time to respond as his hand went to your lower back, guiding you to the island of beef, soup, and some vegetables. “I hope your hungry. All this warm food should make you feel even better.” He pulled out a seat for you, pushing it back in as you sat down. He served some food onto your plate, followed by his, and took a seat opposite you. You both started to eat the delicious food, in silence. You stole silent glances every so often, only to catch his eyes looking back at you. You darted your eyes back to your food. You saw him smile out of your peripheral, causing you to also smile.

Your meal was close to being done and you hadn’t said a single word to him. You had a million things you had practiced if you ever got a slimmer of courage to talk to him. His voice woke you from your thoughts. “Are you done?” You looked down at your empty plate, back up to him and nodded. He smile politely, taking both of your plates over to the sink to rinse them before putting them in the dishwasher.

“You don’t have to do that.” You finally spoke. “You’ve done so much already. With all you’ve done, I should be making you food.” He responded without turning around, still cleaning off your dishes.

“But I wanted to.” The water turned off. He grabbed a towel, dried off his hands and walked towards where you were still seated. He leaned slightly to be eye level with you, rubbing your cheek with his thumb. “After the day you’ve had, someone has to take care of you. I’m just glad I was there to help when I did.” Your stomach dropped, you had no words. His face started to get closer to yours. Was he- was he going to kiss you?! You panicked and closed your eyes. You heard a deep chuckle and felt his lips kiss your forehead. You felt him back up and your eyes fluttered open to see him still looking at you. “Why don’t you go pick out a movie and I’ll finish up cleaning here.” Shocked, you nodded and went to sit on your couch and pull up a movie on Netflix. Your heart was racing, as were your thoughts. He hadn’t talked to you much since you moved in. You admired him nonetheless whenever you saw him.

Little did you know, he had been doing the same. He was just as nervous to talk to you as you were to him. He developed a crush on you also these past few months. He thought you were stunning, especially doing regular tasks such as collecting your mail or taking out the trash. He had gotten some of your work mail by accident. Before returning it, he made a note of where you worked. He had sent you flowers every so often, signing it as from your ‘Secret Admirer’. You had never known who it was from, but he would tell you in a few months. He had now returned from the kitchen to join you on the couch. As you awkwardly scrolled through the movies, you heard him clear his throat. This caused you to look over at him. He looked nervous now, a small blush growing on his face. “You know, I had meant to ask you out a while ago but never got the nerve. I wasn’t sure where you would want to go or what you’d want to do.” His voice trailed off as he scratched at the back of his neck. Seeing him like this, being so close to you finally, you leaned over and kissed his cheek. It shocked him as much as it did you. He looked over at you, grinning.

You spoke gently, as if you only wanted him to hear. “This is perfect.”

[asterinjapan]

Back in time

Good evening, this time from the train from Osaka to Okayama! It's a little past 8:30 pm now, and since I'll have to get up early tomorrow for my trip to Tokyo, I'll be typing most of today's report on my phone. Just a heads up in case you spot any weird typoes, haha.

Anyway! Today was indeed a busy day, although very much fun in a lot of senses. You see, today I was meeting up with a friend to go to Universal Studios Japan, and then to a concert by KOKIA, my absolute favourite artist. So that's 3 great things in one sentence already, haha.

I'll be splitting the report so that one half just concerns the concert, because I tend to do very detailed reports on those. Seeing KOKIA live is such a treat, I don't want to forget a single detail! So below follows the report on the rest of the day.

I had to get up early to catch my train, so of course I woke up wayyyy to early at 4 am, pff. I went right back to sleep and woke up a little before my 6 am alarm, which was still too early, because breakfast starts at 6:30, haha. Oh well, plenty of time to get dressed in peace!

After breakfast, I made my way to the station to catch the shinkansen to Shin-Osaka station. The train goes past Himeji, though sadly I wasn't in a good position to take a picture of the castle. I did however notice that you can see Okayama castle from the train as well, be it from quite the distance. The views weren't really superb today, which was to be expected, since there was rain forecasted for pretty much the entire country. Oh well, not much I can do about that but take an umbrella, haha.

The trip was smooth and I met up with my friend at the station. We were going to Osaka station from here, a mere 5 minute ride, but it was quite tricky to even make it through the shinkansen gates. It was really busy for some reason, though they had just announced a train further south had stopped running due to heavy rains. Uh oh... but so far so good in Osaka, no rain yet and we eventually made it to Osaka station and from there, 2 quick trains bound for Universal Studios Japan!

We first caught up a little over drinks, with matcha latte for me of course, before we made it to the park entrance and got tickets. Since it was a Saturday I suspected it would be busy and we'd need to draw a number for the Harry Potter part of the park, but apparently the weather forecast worked in our favour, because there were no numbers needed to enter today. Yaaay! I went to Universal 4 years ago as well and mostly spent my day in the Harry Potter part, haha, so I wasn't complaining about starting here. Actually, this part of the park only has two rides proper and they're both a bit wild for us, but just looking around here is an attraction in itself. I got all nostalgic over the music and the scenes, and after shop browsing for a while and having our picture taken in front of the Hogwarts Express, we went into the wand shop to experience some magic happening as a random audience member was picked to be chosen by a wand. Sadly this wasn't me, haha, although I have a great wand at home I bought here last time. It was a fun little show (this time Ollivander spoke both very good English and Japanese, haha), after which we ended up in the wand shop, but we passed through it in favour of the castle.

You can go into Hogwarts castle for a pretty intense adventure (I did it back in 2015, my stomach wasn't very happy), or you can choose to take a stroll inside and look up on awe at all the amazing detail they put on here, haha. We opted for the latter, and I definitely made use of the invitation to take pictures by going wild with my current camera. Much better quality! Ah, I love this camera so. The castle has a ton of talking and moving paintings as well as some projections and a ton of replicas from the movies. Aside maybe from the last bit, where we first had to wait for a while for unknown reasons and then were rushed through, it was really great.

Once outside, we spotted some performers coming out dressed like the students from the wizarding schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang from the fourth book/movie, so we stayed to watch. I think i read somewhere that this was a limited time show, and they were really good, very athletic. (I'm personally not a big fan of the movie approach of "the French students are only girls who dance pretty dainty ballet and the vaguely Russian students are only manly guys who grunt and stomp with sticks", but hey, that says nothing about the performers here! And the costumes were lovely. )

After some more shop browsing, we were in for a surprise once we were outside: the sun was shining bright! Absolutely not according to the forecasts, absolutely not complaining, haha. I took some very pretty pictures of the castle if I do say so myself, and then we went for lunch here. The salad served at the Three Broomsticks was pretty big, plenty enough to share. After this and of course some butterbeer (non-alcoholic), we left the wizarding world behind us and moved into the rest of the park.

This mostly ended in sightseeing, since the rows were too long to consider queuing up with the concert time getting closer, but that was a lot of fun too. They put in so much detail, and since it is almost Halloween, a lot of people had come dressed up.They do in the Disney parks too, but Disney has pretty strict rules about which characters you're allowed to dress up as, while here it seems to be "anything goes". I saw a guy dressed up as a piece of corn, quite some elaborate costume dress ups, a surprising amount of guys in Sailor Moon outfits, a lot of fancy gothic dress up, and a surprising number of uh, nuns. Alright! And of course, there was the usual mix with outfits from the Harry Potter part and uh, Minions. They have their own spot here.

We also went into the Jurassic park area, which was closed for maintenance last time, although sadly we didn't see a lot of dinosaurs roaming around. There was a scarily realistic Velociraptor animatronic inside the gift shop though! (I think it might have been Blue? Look, I only saw Jurassic World once.) But well, I still love dinosaurs, so this was still cool, haha.

Once we were getting closer to the time of the concert, we went back to the station to catch the train to Osaka station. Luckily the concert venue was very close and actually within the same building in which they have the big Broadway musicals here, currently the little mermaid. It was the lion king last time I went here and got lost at Osaka station, haha. (That station is like 5 different stations all connected, so it's a bit of a maze.) We got seated, got ourselves a drink (it's kinda like a jazz bar here, so you sit at a table and you can order food and drinks), made a quick trip to the merchandise shop, and then sat back to enjoy the performance.

I'll save those details for my next post, haha, but rest assured I had a great time. KOKIA had two performances tonight, so it was a little shorter than a big hall concert, but she did make time for an autograph session! Naturally we queued up with our newly purchased albums, haha.

Ah, such a good time! It was around dinner time now, so my friend introduced me to akashiyaki, which is "sort of takoyaki, except not", haha. Akashi is a city in the nearby Hyogo prefecture, and these are dumplings made of egg rich batter and octopus you need to dump into thin fish broth before eating (thank you, wikipedia). Although takoyaki, also balls with octopus, is more popular and better known, akashiyaki apparently came first. It was really yummy! We shared akashiyaki and then had a takoyaki gratin, which sounded kinda odd, but ended up being delicious as well. We eventually had some desserts at a nearby tea shop that sold SO MANY matcha things, I nearly had a crisis deciding until I opted for the matcha roll cake, incidentally the best roll cake I've ever had.

It was time to part ways with the promise of reunion, and I made it to Shin-Osaka alone. Familiar territory after last year, haha. I caught a shinkansen for Okayama and I have just arrived in my hotel safe and sound, very tired but very pleased.

Tomorrow will be tiring without a doubt, as I'll be in a train for 4.5 hours straight (I did this to myself, I know). But then I'll be in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, my home away from home at this point, haha. I guess I'll ditch my things at the hotel and then rush to Shibuya for my favourite little shrine there, because I must owe some deity something for how lucky I've been so far. Did I mention it was dry the whole time we were outside? Yeah.

I love Tokyo, so I'm very excited about going back there, but it also means saying goodbye to Okayama and entering my last week already. Time really flies, huh...

Well, stay tuned for pictures and the concert review while I go pack my suitcase (the title will make sense after that review, haha, although Harry Potter and dinosaurs are both things I grew up with) and then see you tomorrow from Tokyo!

[jlawrence10]

This was our summit on Thursday morning, and it was a good one. 2:30 AM, a full moon rising over boiling clouds, as climbers trickled out of the RMI Expeditions hut at 10,000 feet to come to terms with the fact that we weren't going any higher.

--------------- I have made no attempt to keep this short. ---------------

As many of you know, I was honored with an invite to join the second Climb for Clean Air Rainier Team on a summit attempt with RMI Expeditions this past week. It's a 4 day program of learning about gear, mountain techniques, and snow climbing, with a stay at their hut halfway up the mountain at Camp Muir, and one shot at the summit on Thursday morning.

I always advise new climbers not to obsess over the weather forecast, because all it does is cause stress, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. So as I obsessed over the weather forecast for a week prior, I could tell that it wasn’t looking good. But you've got to stay in the frame of mind that a window might open up, so you're ready for a shot at the top if it comes. That can be difficult; a few of us camped in the rain on Monday night, but for Tuesday's snow climbing class the weather was mostly acceptable. No view of the mountain, but some sun breaks, and hardly any rain at all.

I guess the rain was saving itself up for Wednesday, when we had to climb from the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park, 4 miles and 4500 vertical feet with full overnight packs, weighing in between 40 and 50 lbs. As we pulled into the lot at Paradise, the windshield wipers were going strong, and instead of hopping out into the rain to gear up, our guide Win Whittaker asked the bus driver if we could pull up to the lot in front of Paradise Lodge to go inside and gear up instead. Neither Win, the longtime guide/bus driver/partial RMI owner Joe, nor 7 year guide Mike knew if there was space to turn the bus around in the lodge lot. They had never had conditions that warranted pulling up to the lodge to get geared up. I took this to be a pretty bad sign.

But gear up we did, and out into the rain we went. There's not much choice. If you want a shot at the top, you have to get to Camp Muir at a decent hour to rest up, eat, and hydrate. The hike out of Paradise and onto the Muir snowfields was... well, it was a little bit fun to be honest with you. But it was also pretty horrible. Our guide Mike would later say that it was the worst day on the snowfield he had ever experienced, and he's been guiding for 7 years. (I’m sure he says that every time it rains, but whatever…) It was basically a recipe for hypothermia. Temps hovering between 35 and 42 degrees, heavy rain, and winds gusting to probably 40 mph.

This team was amazing.

We put our gear on, put our heads down, and just took off into the clouds. At times it was just breezy and moist. At other times we were nearly blown off our feet. And at times the rain was just soaking. Our amazing guides Win, Mike, Abby, Drew, Avery and Matias kept checking in with each and every one of us. Are your hands ok? Is anybody chilled? Do you have plenty of energy? I realized later that these check ins were also our chance to bail out. Mike said that 9 out of 10 teams he has guided wouldn't have continued up into such conditions. But for this team, it never even came up. They've all raised a ton of money for the American Lung Association, and unlike many who call themselves mountaineers, they weren't climbing for themselves. They were climbing for the friends, families and colleagues who had donated to the cause. They were climbing for the husbands and wives who had held down the fort at home while they hit the trail every damn weekend since February. They were climbing, and I was climbing, for the loved ones we've lost to lung disease and fucking cancer, and we weren't going to let a little rain slow us down.

In fact, the rain sped us up. Usual time to Camp Muir on a nice day is about five hours. We did it in just over four. We didn't take any sit-down breaks, and in fact I only took my pack off once, when I decided I needed to sacrifice a valuable pair of dry gloves, because my hands were getting chilled to the point where I couldn't really use them anymore.

At about 9000 feet, as we hit a very exposed snow field with steady winds and near-freezing rain, our guide Avery looked back at us, and said, "You guys are gonna have to keep up with me. We are not going to go slow." This made me pretty happy because I knew a faster pace would warm me up. I'm not sure if all my fellow climbers shared this sentiment.

We pulled into Camp Muir, ditched our packs, and piled into the RMI hut, which is a small room filled mostly with bunks. Those of us that had any dry clothes changed into them. Those that didn't stripped down and climbed into their sleeping bag. Those that had a leak in their trash-bag-pack-liner shared a sleeping bag until the guides rustled up an extra, warning that, "It probably smells like guide."

It was about 3:00 PM, the wind kept howling outside, the rain and snow and sleet kept pounding the hut, but we were safe and comfortable for the time being, as Win and Mike came in to brief us on tomorrow's summit attempt. Win started in to his usual, "We'll wake you up between midnight and two..." but then stopped, got a sort of "fuck it" look on his face, and said, "I'm gonna be frank. It's not looking good." We'd all seen the forecast. We all had layers that were soaking wet. Some didn't have any dry gloves, and others had boots that had either soaked through, or filled up from the top. Efforts to hang clothes to dry in a hut in a rainstorm filled with 18 warm breathing bodies were mostly a kind of charade. The best technique was wringing out a layer, hanging it for a couple hours, and then either putting it in your sleeping bag (bad!) or just putting it on (worse!). We all knew the situation, and I think we all appreciated Win's honesty. He and Mike still briefed us as if we might give it a shot, and Win insisted later that he hadn't actually ruled it out until 2:00 AM because dammit he was weathered off on his last attempt too.

After a lot of hot water bottles, some bad jokes (Mike), some good riddles (Matias), some enthusiastic chatter (Charyl), we settled in for "quiet time" at about 6:30 and tried to sleep a bit as the wind kept pounding the hut.

2:00 AM had to come. I guess I slept a bit because before I knew it, Win was in there. "It's not in the cards, guys." He reiterated that winds up high were forecast over 60 mph, temps were dropping, and drove the point home by grabbing a couple pieces of hanging gear, which were still dripping wet. He knew that putting on wet gloves and wet boots and climbing into freezing winds is a recipe for disaster.

I think we all knew it. For me, it wasn't a surprise, and the disappointment had settled slowly rather than punching me in the gut. But I've been up Rainier before. And I have a good chance to go up again. For some of these folks, this was their second attempt after raising a ton of money, twice. For others, this may have been their only shot. And I was feeling pretty devastated for them. I took in the news, laid back for a few minutes, and decided that since I was up I might as well head over and use the smelly bathrooms. I put on some layers and slipped into my damp boots. I got to the door, lowered my head and stepped out into the presumably howling winds and rain. As I got out there and looked around, these words came to my mouth:

"Fuck. It's perfect."

The winds had calmed. The clouds had lowered. A full moon was rising to the south over a boiling sea of clouds that were rolling rapidly east and, as one climber later put it, "Looked alive."

I turned and looked at the upper mountain, and it was lit brightly by the moon and looked so cold and beautiful set against a sky of stars that shone strongly despite the overpowering moonlight.

I'm not gonna lie - My first reaction was anger and frustration and doubt and questioning of the decision to not climb. The night seemed ideal. But I was being a selfish idiot. Win has climbed this mountain 140+ times. Mike has climbed 35+ times. There were six incredible guides with years of experience agonizing over this decision for hours, and if I'm not gonna trust them to make the right decisions to keep us safe, then I certainly shouldn't tie into their rope and put my life in their hands at 14,000 feet. But I DID trust them to make the right decisions to keep us safe, and I would have trusted them with my life at 14,000 feet, and as they proved to us during that trip and later on in the warmth at Base Camp back in town (warmth provided by hot showers, central heating, and a few beers), they wanted that summit as much as we did. And not for themselves, but for us, and for our donors, and for our family members and colleagues and husbands and wives and girlfriends without whom none of us would be here.

But here we definitely are, trickling out of hut at 10,000 feet at 2:30 in the morning, eyes adjusting to the bright moonlight and taking in the rolling clouds below us and the bright moon above. Tears were shed. Hugs were shared. Someone brought out a decent sized flask of decent bourbon and that someone was me. Someone else went back in to the hut and whispered that if anyone was awake, they should really come out and have a look. Pictures were taken, and there was some half-joking discussion about finding a rope and going up anyway, but overall the mood as I read it changed from one of disappointment and sadness to simple and sincere appreciation for where we were at that moment. Not many people ever got to see what we were seeing, and got to be part of a team like this. We looked around at the people we had met earlier that week, earlier this year, or in some cases over 12 years ago because of this program, and we felt good about what we had done and where we were at that very moment.

Eventually we had to go back inside, grab a few more hours of sleep, and wait for the time that the rest of the world knows as morning; actual sunrise. The sun rose on a brilliantly clear morning, clouds still churning below us, as our guides shuttled enormous fluffy pancakes down from their quarters, and we started to pack our things. We descended back down into the clouds, but it was merely foggy and a little moist, nothing to worry us mountaineers.

Back in town, we had some showers and some food and some beers, and gathered for a little ceremony to get our certificate of (the carefully worded) “Participation in an ascent of Mt. Rainier.” Everyone spoke a bit about what they had learned, and watching people shrug off the disappointment and tell stories of gratitude and joy and learning and accomplishment just drove home my love and appreciation for this team and this program.

When it was my turn to speak about what I had learned, I kind of cheated. It’s something that I re-learned and that I re-learn every time I’m out there.

Signing up for some weird fundraising, mountain climbing program after hearing a radio ad in 2007… Getting out of bed on a dark, rainy February morning to do some training hike you’ve already done 17 times… Heading out to the mountains even though the forecast isn’t great and it might be too cold or wet or windy to go very high… Heading out to Ashford, Washington with a bad forecast and a low chance at a summit, and diving headlong into a cold soaking rain to slog up some snowfield to spend a wet night in a leaky hut at 10,000 feet…

What I re-learned was this: It’s always worth it.

Because you may end up with some lifelong friends.

And you may end up in a newly built yurt on a smooth concrete floor, as Win Whittaker plays guitar and forgets lyrics, while newly minted mountaineer Steve plays a damn good backing drum and Paul strolls in with a strong clear voice and I think a Nalgene full of ice? that sounds surprisingly good as a shaker. And he’s especially adept at looking up lyrics so we can all try and mostly fail to sing along.

And you may end up at 10,000 feet, gazing at the most amazing moonrise you’ve ever seen, feeling life in the form of disappointment and sadness and gratitude and love and awe and wonder and burning whiskey and a dull headache and tears drying on your cheeks.

[tripstations]

Cool and Wet Safari Adventures in Jim Corbett National Park

over a beer on one of the hotel’s patios. It was lovely and cool, just like an early Canadian summer evening – not too warm and not too cold. A soothing breeze cooled whatever heat remained from the stone terrace as we sipped our Kingfisher beers. We couldn’t believe that we were in India! Suddenly, how cool, how livable, how not unbearably hot! We glanced up at the star-filled sky and thought of Ruth, John’s sister, who could tell us where we were in the celestial sky. We revelled in the noiseless, honk-less, people-less-ness of it all. No noise, no pollution, no crowds….no nothing! We don’t dally with this euphoria because we have a wake-up call for 4:30 for our first day of Safari in Jim Corbett National Park.  The Tigers await!

Cancelled!

John shakes me out of sleep at 4:50 am. “Greg, we’ve missed the wake-up call…what the hell’s going on?” I, of course, being completely engaged in what I do so well – sleep – have missed the tumultuous thunder and lightning storm that has engulfed the park overnight. Just our luck – not a lick of rain or even a cloud in the sky for the entire two weeks that we have been in India. Not even a chance of rain in the forecast. It is at least 6 weeks till the monsoon starts. There has been a constant comment on the heat and dryness of the country, and we arrive for our first day of Safari and it rains. The phone rings at 5:00 and a stilted voice tells us that our Safari is cancelled due to rain and to hang on for further information. Ok. I roll over and pull the pillow over my head and proceed as soon as possible back to ZZZZZ land. My favourite place to visit. I hope to live there one day.

The phone rings at 8:15. It’s our stilted friend again telling us that we can do a full day safari today but we must be prepared to be out for the entire day, which is 9:30 – 7:00 and do we have raincoats with us, etc, etc. etc. I agree and roll over again for another half hour. We get up, have breakfast and head out into what is now a completely different weather pattern and onto the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

followAUTUMN.com

We officially decide to change our trip to followautumn.com. I have to put on two layers and my rain jacket. I wear short pants on safari and justify it by wearing the two layers and rain gear on top for the trip. I’m a hardy Canadian. My bare legs can take it. It’s India for God’s sake. Everything feels smells and looks like our annual Labour Day retreat to Bluesea Lake in the Gatineau region of Quebec with our friends Bob and Brian. All of a sudden we are in a beautiful, wet, late autumn with hints of a glorious Indian summer. It is the foothills of the Himalayas after all. Talk about a brain fart. By the end of the day, we are both shivering and completely cold with the rain and wind. Our safari vehicle is a big open truck with seats in the back with no windows and no protection. Of course, this viewing situation would be perfect when it is hot and sunny. Just enough protection from the sun but still able to let a nice cooling breeze flow through.

Scenes from a Safari

We have seen langur monkeys, rhesus monkeys, deer, both spotted and not, sambar, eagles, herds of wild elephants, mongoose, 2 species of crocodiles, beautiful long-tailed flycatchers, hornbills, peafowl, pheasants, forest fowl, and wild boars, but no tigers! At the mid-point lunch break, a group of Indian tourists out for a Sunday drive in the park say they experienced a “first-class sighting” of a tiger. The base camp suddenly springs into action; each guide wanting his client to catch a glimpse of the elusive Bengal Tiger. This, despite the pouring rain. 4X4’s roar into gear and head out in search of the Tigers. To no avail, it seems. John and I wonder that if all this sudden action actually scares the Tigers away.

The Beating Rain Lulls Us to Sleep

We arrive back to our hotel by 7:00. We have driven over torturous muddy, wet and rut-filled roads. The thunder and lighting are tremendous and we grab hot showers and begin the familiar ritual of packing for the next leg of our journey to Greece and Turkey. We have a quiet dinner in the hotel restaurant. Our lights are out early (as usual) and we listen to the beating rain on the roof of our bungalow.

  World Traveler, Writer, and Blogger, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the tripstations.com travel blog.  A former Actor, current shower-singer, and non-hipster foodie. Loves his week-end house in St Marys, Ontario. Dad to Sophia, Ariel, and Hastings three of the best cats in the world.

The post Cool and Wet Safari Adventures in Jim Corbett National Park appeared first on Tripstations.

from Tripstations https://ift.tt/2C6MofI via IFTTT

[pllsetskyonice]

so come a little closer

Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky

1,848 words

Yuri only opens his bedroom window to get some fresh air in. He doesn't expect to find out that his hot neighbours are sitting shirtless in the garden next door, and he certainly doesn't expect to get invited over.

AO3 link

Seriously, fuck this weather.

It’s day two of a heatwave that’s come out of nowhere after weeks of nothing but grey skies and rain, temperatures soaring on the thermometer and each day dubbed ‘hottest day of the year so far’ on the weather forecast. Logically, Yuri knows he should be happy that it’s nice and sunny and that he doesn’t have to spend his life dressed in a hoodie with the heating on, but Yuri doesn’t deal particularly well with heat. He never has. He’s better than he used to be, for sure – when he was little he used to get absolutely beside himself when summer came around – but he still reaches for the factor fifty every time the weather forecast predicts temperatures above twenty degrees.

He gets up leisurely, has a shower, gets dressed, changes his bedsheets, opens the blinds. His bedroom is at the back of the house he shares with Mila and Georgi, and his window is practically the length of one entire wall. It’s not a great view, just of the backs of the houses that back onto theirs and the gardens of the houses either side, but the light is always great in his bedroom, so Yuri isn’t complaining.

He doesn’t particularly plan to leave the house today, but supposes he should at least to attempt to get some fresh air, so he opens the window. In doing so, he happens to glance across to the garden next door, and –

Oh.

Sitting on chairs soaking up the sun’s rare appearance, sipping from drinks and listening to music, are a couple of guys. Topless guys. Hot topless guys.

Perhaps this weather isn’t so bad after all.

Yuri’s aware he has neighbours, sure, but he’s barely seen them apart from if they’ve been leaving the house at the same time to go to uni or put the bins out. He’s never met them. And he certainly never knew that they were so attractive.

Hot or not, he probably shouldn’t be staring, so Yuri scoots away from the window and frantically texts Mila.

11:23 WE HAVE HOT NEIGHBOURS

11:23 WHY HAVE WE NEVER MET THEM

11:25 ohhh are you talking about jj and otabek?

11:25 if they’re the ones that live to the right of our house then yes

11:25 yeah that’s them

11:26 BITCH YOU KNOW THEM? WTF WHY HAVEN’T YOU INTRODUCED ME?

11:27 I barely know them, I met them once at a party through a mutual friend

11:27 you should go over!

11:28 absolutely not

11:28 that’s weird

11:29 so you’re just going to sit in your room and stare creepily out your window at them instead?

11:30 I’m not staring thank you very much

11:31 you sure?

11:31 …at the moment

11:32 knew it haha

11:32 seriously though, you should go over, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind

11:33 I’m not convinced

Yuri sighs and puts his phone down, moving back over to the window. They’re still there, and Yuri can hear the music they’re playing faintly through his open window. They’re still there with their dark hair styled with undercuts and their toned muscles and their abs, and – oh shit.

One of the guys is looking back him.

Every fibre of his being wants to run away from the window, leave the house, the city, the country, the world, but something makes him stay put. The guy exchanges a look with the other one and stands up, walking over to the fence that separates their two gardens.

“Hey!” he yells. “You busy?”

“No,” Yuri calls back. “Why?”

“You want to come over?”

Yuri doesn’t even hesitate. “Okay!”

“Great!” the guy yells. “Bring drinks, yeah?”

“Sure!” Yuri gets up and starts shoving things into a bag, namely his phone, the two half full bottles of flavoured vodka he’s got lying around and some lemonade. He quickly slips on some shoes, runs downstairs and out of the door. He walks down the drive and up next door’s, going down the side of the house to the gate that leads to the back garden. The gate is a wrought iron affair, so they see him coming, the guy who yelled at him across the fence wandering over to unlatch it for him.

“Hey,” Yuri says as he walks into their back garden. “Thanks for inviting me over.”

“No worries,” the guy says. “Shouldn’t be sitting inside on a beautiful day like this. I’m JJ, this is Otabek.”

The other guy – Otabek, Yuri mentally corrects – gets up from his chair to greet him. Now that he’s looking at them up close rather than through a decidedly grubby window, Otabek definitely is, at least in Yuri’s opinion, the hotter of the two. “Hey,” Otabek says. “It’s nice to meet you, um…”

“Yuri,” Yuri supplies. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

They look at each other for a few moments, Otabek’s dark eyes seeming like they’re intently searching for something in Yuri’s own. Behind them, JJ clears his throat rather pointedly. “Do I need to leave you two alone?” he asks. Otabek breaks from Yuri’s gaze, going over to sit back down on his chair again.

“No,” Otabek replies. “I think we’re good for now.”

For now. Yuri smirks at that, then remembers that he’s brought drinks over. He takes his bag off his shoulder and pulls out the bottles. “Where do you want…?”

JJ directs him to a cooler sitting in the shade by the back door. He gets Yuri a chair and they all sit down together, discussing what they’re studying, where they’re from, what their housemates are like. Their housemate Leo, Yuri discovers, has gone to the supermarket with his boyfriend Guang Hong to pick up barbecue supplies and more drinks. A few other people are coming over later, apparently, once they’re out of work or uni.

Yuri decides that he should probably put some sunscreen on to save his pale skin from getting burnt, so reaches for his bag and pulls out the bottle. He quickly squirts some out and starts rubbing it into his skin, trying to make sure he isn’t left with any smears of white left on his skin. Once he’s done, he puts the bottle away and sits back in his chair, but not before he notices that Otabek is looking at him a little oddly.

“What?” Yuri asks.

“You missed a bit,” Otabek replies. “Here – let me –” he reaches out and wipes away a smear of sunscreen that Yuri didn’t manage to get rubbed in on his face. “There you go.”

“Thanks,” Yuri mumbles, giving Otabek a shy smile. Otabek gives him a small smile in return and they stay just simply looking at each other for a while and Yuri is convinced that yes, there’s definitely something between them.

There’s the sound of the gate opening and voices coming around the side of the house, making Yuri break away from Otabek’s gaze. Two guys appear, evidently Leo and Guang Hong from the barbecue supplies they’re carrying. They share greetings with everyone and start setting up the barbecue, JJ wandering over to help out.

Otabek gets up and walks over to the table by the back door, where a laptop and a set of speakers are placed. He scrolls through the music library, queuing up a few more songs before taking his phone out of his pocket and throwing it in Yuri’s direction, which Yuri just manages to catch by the tips of his fingers. “Add some songs to the playlist,” he says. “Whatever you like.”

The phone is unlocked, so Yuri immediately starts scrolling through Otabek’s extensive music collection, adding a couple of songs here and there. It’s a vast library, songs and albums from all different genres and artists and time periods, everything from classics like Bohemian Rhapsody to obscure indie bands Yuri’s never heard of before.

“You like your music, then?” Yuri asks as he passes Otabek’s phone back.

“Yeah,” Otabek replies. “It’s what I’m doing my degree in and I DJ in my spare time.”

“You have a club night, that’s hardly just doing it in your spare time,” Leo says with a roll of his eyes. “Bet you’re gonna be famous one day.”

“You have a club night?” Yuri asks. When Otabek uttered the phrase ‘I DJ in my spare time’, Yuri had visions of him playing shitty student house parties pretending like he’s the next Hardwell or something, but no, Otabek is far away from the stereotype of the wannabe student DJ. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I do,” Otabek says. “Thursdays at GOLDEN. You should come along, I’ll add you to the guestlist.”

At the same time Yuri says, “That’d be nice”, there’s a chorus of indignant shouts from over by the barbecue, all of them sounding rather unimpressed.

“What the fuck, Beka –”

“- number of times we’ve asked to be added to the guestlist –”

“- oh no, it’s fine, we’ll just carry on paying entry like plebs –”

“- just because you want to get in his –”

“Guys!” Otabek shouts. “Calm down, would you? I’ll try and get you added as well.”

JJ, Leo and Guang Hong go back to the barbecue and Yuri turns to Otabek with a suspicious look on his face. “Are you actually going to add them?”

“We’ll see,” Otabek shrugs. “They’re not special like you are.”

Yuri feels himself blush.

He blames it on the sun.

-

Later that evening, when the sun has gone down and all that’s left of the barbecue is a pile of ash, Yuri decides it’s probably time he made a move back to his own house. He starts to collect together his things, leaving behind the now empty bottles of vodka he brought over for them to put in their recycling. JJ has gone over to his girlfriend’s and Leo and Guang Hong are at the other end of the garden lying on a blanket looking at the stars or some other ridiculously sappy shit, so it’s just Otabek Yuri has to say goodbye to.

“You going home?” Otabek asks when he notices Yuri putting his things back into his backpack.

“Yeah,” Yuri replies. “I’ve had a really nice day, though.”

“Me too.” They stand in silence for a moment, neither of them wanting to say goodbye. “Can I get your number?”

Yuri quickly keys his number into Otabek’s phone, ringing himself so he’s got Otabek’s number too. “Guess I’ll see you around, then.” Yuri turns to go, starting to walk towards the gate, when –

“Wait.” Otabek grabs hold of his hand and Yuri turns back to face him. “You can’t go yet.”

Yuri doesn’t even get the chance to ask why because Otabek’s kissing him and this is everything Yuri has wanted all day and more. It’s a perfect first kiss, lasting just the right amount of time, Otabek running his fingers through Yuri’s long hair.

“I’ll text you,” Otabek murmurs when the kiss is over. “See you on Thursday, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Yuri says with a smile. “See you Thursday.”

next chapter >>

[mwcowan]

Mark & Georgia’s 2018 Road Trip

Day 1: Graeagle to Big Bar, CA, 242 miles

Ready to roll. We packed our camper and truck very well. Minimalist as Mark is and as a minimalist wannabe I am, we did very well.  For clothes and shoes, I, Georgia, continue to fail on my minimalist efforts – I just have to have 7 extra shirts, 3 extra shorts, and pants, and undies, and socks, etc,. Our packed supplies will keep us clean, warm, healthily nourished and hydrated (on both sides of the spectrum of health?) for at least 2 weeks. Packed all organized by activity, coffee and breakfast, anytime cooking, anytime dining, anytime bath, anytime grilling.

On the road! Big Bar wasn’t a real destination but a layover between home and the coastal redwoods parks – that’ll be tomorrow’s update. When we reserved the site at the Del Loma RV Park the gentleman on the phone warned us that if we needed gas or groceries get should them in Weaverville as there’s nothing in Big Bar. Good advice, he was absolutely correct. The drive here was uneventful, Mark kind of likes going slow (max speed with a trailer is 55 MPH but the roads we traveled were generally slower). Road construction slowed us down some, seems like everyone wants to finish their road project before winter sets in. Just west of Redding we entered the Carr fire area. Unbelievable devastation, you could see what used to be homes, what used to be autos, the town of Shasta was pretty much gone. To give you an idea of the size of the fire we drove through over 20 miles of burned forest before we reached the other side of the fire area. Very sad. Reached our RV park about 4 pm, not a bad place but kinda creepy (think Deliverance, banjo music, and all that…). Lots of people seem to live here at least semi-permanently, sort of a community with neighbors visiting each other and such. Funny thing is that everyone seems to retreat into their big RV’s around dinner time, to cook, eat, and watch TV (they all have satellite dishes). We’re trying to maintain some pretense of camping so we’re eating outdoors and enjoying our campfire and a glass of wine or two. Looking forward to day 2!

Day 2: Big Bar to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, 146 miles

On the road promptly by 10:00 a.m., as planned. Today was an example of how you can drive 146 miles in over 6 hours, an average of about 24 MPH. We’d gone less than a mile from last night’s camp when we pulled over to soak in the view of the Trinity river canyon. We wound around with the river for about 60 miles, stopping frequently to take in the vistas, walk to the edge and peer over into the steep canyon, feeling vertigo. Thinking that there’d be many places we’d like to come back and fish. At the RV park this morning we saw (and followed, and asked questions of) a number of men coming back from the river with salmon. They were all complaining of the lack of fish and the small size, but the fish were all much bigger than the trout we catch, bigger than our biggest trout!

After arriving at the coast we drove north through Redwood National Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and finally to our campsite in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. What magnificent trees! You can hardly appreciate their size, definitely too big to take a picture of them. Our campsite in Jedediah Smith CG is on the Smith River, among old-growth redwoods.

We tried fishing on the river, and saw fish – salmon? – jumping but we just aren’t equipped with the waders and other gear you’d need to go after them.

Anyway and back to the trees, to give you an idea of their size one in our campsite took me 23 paces to walk around. At around 2 ½ feet/pace, that’s over 55 feet in circumference! How old is that tree, how much history has it lived through? We, and the span of our lives are so tiny…

Driving through miles and miles of a forest of California redwoods is awesome and unique, knowing you will not see this anywhere else in the world.  Ending the day at Jedediah Smith CG, to be camping and sleeping inside this canopy of majestic and towering redwoods, alongside a breathtaking river that “runs through it” is as amazing as it can be.  All this, with the clean toilets and coin showers of JSCG, very nice, a “must see”!

Coming into Crescent city in the afternoon we wanted to find some fresh salmon and asked some locals in a gas station if they knew a good fish market – they “didn’t think there was anything like that around here….”, with the wharf right across the street from them.  Georgia used Yelp to find a market out on the wharf, and we bought a nice piece of fresh King salmon for dinner. Yummy!

Day 3: Redwoods to Prospect, Oregon, 135 miles

Today’s drive was an easy “positioning” run to get us outside the south end of Crater Lake National Park, which we’ll visit tomorrow, ending the day in another camp just on the north side of the park. Leaving our campground we said goodbye to the California coastal area, and now followed the Smith River upstream in a northeasterly direction. We had fewer miles today and didn’t set another slowness record, but pretty close – we barely got out of our campground when we pulled over for a great view of the Smith River.

Into Oregon pretty quickly after that, still following the river for the next 50-60 miles. Once we turned onto Hwy 62 towards Crater Lake, we picked up the Rogue River which we’re still following and will continue to do so until we make the final turnoff into the park. After crossing one of the many bridges with a pretty view we pulled over and walked back to a nice park where people were fishing for steelhead – and quickly found wild blackberries which we snacked on until we couldn’t eat any more!

Late update: we’d heard a woman in a campsite across from us saying that it was going to rain tonight, didn’t pay much attention as the skies were blue and calm. While we were cooking dinner a ferocious wind came up and the skies were suddenly gray. I looked at the internet forecast and it said 30% chance of rain – shouldn’t be a problem. Well, we should go to Vegas because the 30% odds hit with a violent thunderstorm and strong rain, had us scrambling to get all the things we didn’t want to get wet back into the truck. Nice and dry, we had our first dinner inside our cozy camper!

Day 4: Prospect, OR to Diamond Lake, OR, 60 miles (+Crater Lake NP, about 35 more miles)

On the road by 9:30 am with most of the packing done and forced the night before by the onslaught of rain.  Cozy and warm through the night, we thought in the morning that this little camper beats the h**l out of tent camping! We agreed that a simple breakfast of coffee, a piece of toast and a shared fruit would tide us over for a heavier lunch of a “sandwich”, very non-Asian for Georgia but fitting (or not so tight in the waist) for a day of driving and sitting ahead of us.

Our first stop was to fuel up at a station in Prospect which, not surprisingly, was the only one in town and only had one pump; at least they had diesel.  We were told that “self-service” was not allowed in the state and so received personal fill-up service.

We arrived at Crater Lake National Park at about 11:00 a.m., and the entrance to the park was free courtesy of Mark’s senior card (definitely benefitting from this park friendly card as most of our entrance fees were either half off or FREE!). Crater Lake boasts of the bluest, the clearest and the deepest lake in the U.S. Although it was mostly a cloudy day, giving it a somewhat mystical feeling, it did not disappoint with being the bluest and the clearest.

We didn’t test its depth claim as it is, at its peak of 8700’ elevation, also very supposed to be very cold!!  We entered the lake from the south end, circled it 360 degrees via its rim, stopping at most of the vista points, then exited the park to the north. This took us over 3 hours to go about 30 miles, a new slowness record for this trip.

We proceeded to our next RV campground stop which is Diamond Lake, just a few miles north of Crater Lake. It’s interesting that RV camping at this time of the year leaves you camping with seniors that have all the time for RV’ing, and camping in these ‘rigs’ that dwarf our little T@B, much like a Bichon amongst an army of St. Bernards, but we are happy with our Bichon.  The more St. Bernards, the less traffic in the restrooms and showers.  These campgrounds also tend to have grandma and grandpa types running it so the toilets and showers tend to be very clean, some almost sterile, and cozy (a bench, a heater, lots of wall hooks, bright light and a private changing room).

Our campground is very close to a pizza house and we decided to go there for our Day 4 dinner of pizza and hot chicken wings with celery sticks, with our choice of a side dip of blue cheese.  When the order arrived, the celery sticks were missing so after Georgia asked about it—they got handed over a minute later with apologies…. two 2-inch sticks delivered by hand… definitely one of the highlights of the day!! Enjoyed all of 2 short pieces of the celery sticks, the double pepperoni pizza was one of the best we’ve had plus the Buoy IPA on tap wasn’t bad!

Day 5: Diamond Lake to Goldendale, WA, 235 miles

A real cruisin’ day, I think I’m (Mark) getting used to this. The first day I was a little nervous driving with the trailer (remember, all of our camping trips before this were within 20 miles of our house), trying to keep it centered between the lines, watching my speed on the curves. Now I’ve realized that the little trailer just happily follows the truck along, just have to drive pretty normally, look back now and then to confirm it’s still there. It, and the truck are starting to look like real road warriors (dirty!) especially after the rains and wet/dirty roads that resulted yesterday morning. Bought some 409 today and will try to shine it up a bit.

Today we drove mostly north, from Crater Lake through the Umpqua National Forest. 60+ miles of pine trees, but unlike Graeagle they’re pretty short and scruffy – to Bend, where we stopped for a sandwich, fuel, and potty break. After Bend, the landscape changes dramatically into rolling hills of ranches and wheat fields, amber waves of grain. Ok, the grain had all been recently harvested, but the stubble was at least amber. And how’d that picture below get into this blog? 

Georgia’s family’s viber hotline was busy early morning amidst the sad passing of the youngest boy of close family friends, the Conejeros.  We are saddened by this news and reminded how life can be fleetingly short, that family and friends do remember your happy moments, that there is an end and that we should really make the most of each day.

As Georgia reflected and said her prayers today, grateful for this trip and the gift of life, the “Lord’s Prayer” hit home a little differently….”Give us this day our daily bread..”  Wait, why “bread” specifically and why not; “Give us this day our daily rice..”  Yes, Georgia is beginning to crave rice at Day 5 after daily doses of bread... (Georgia, remember the amber waves of grain thing? – MC)

Camping tonight just across the border in Washington, with the Columbia River as our backyard. That’s one wide river! Must have some huge fish in it…once again our Bichon looks happy at Day 5 flanked by St. Bernards.

Day 6: Goldendale, WA to Coeur d’Alene, ID, 271 miles

Just as we left our camp on the Columbia River we noticed a round stone fortress looking thing up on the top of a hill. I thought it looked like Stonehenge and we definitely needed to go up and take a look. It turned out to be Stonehenge, or at least what the original non-ruin Stonehenge probably looked like. Correct in all the details, even with a chart of the sun and moon risings occurred during significant annual events. A plaque inside explained its existence, it was built from 1918-1929 by one of the town’s founders to honor local men who gave their lives in WWI. The things you find on the road.

We made it to Idaho! Our longest driving day so far, driving through WA in a day, and I think this will be so until one of our last days when we blast across Nevada in one day. After Stonehenge we drove upstream (east) along the river, following the trail of Lewis and Clark for some 60 miles. What a sight this broad river must have been to them! 

Our riverside highway dead-ended at US 395, and for the first time on this journey we joined an interstate which was to take us to Coeur d’Alene (we’re trying to stay on state and local highways, except where it’s not really practical). Getting out of the truck for a fuel and lunch break at Kinnewick, the wind almost ripped the door off the truck when I opened it – it was howling! Luckily the heavy truck and the light trailer are very stable, I hadn’t noticed the wind while driving. Re lunch, Perry’s comments about fried chicken stoked another craving in Georgia and we ended up at KFC…

After Kennewick we found that the combination of high winds and freshly worked field results in dust storms. We drove for the next 170 miles, through Spokane and all the way to Coeur d’Alene, in limited visibility from dust, sometimes a bad as a thick fog. About half way I had this flash that the front window in the trailer was cracked open (we do that so damp towels etc. will dry out while we’re driving). I pulled over at a rest stop, and sure enough everything inside was coated with dust. A good shake-out and wipe-down was required once we pulled in to camp. We’re in a great camp at the east end of beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene, and the forecast was for the wind to abate by 9:00. It’s 9:02 at the moment so the forecasters are wrong as usual. We’ll give them until he morning.  Camp Coeur d’Alene (Camp CDA) looks like another “must experience.”  If we owned and ran a campground, Camp CDA will be a basis for its design (fishing, playground, kayaking (they provide kayaks and canoes for anytime use -  free for all guests, not just for seniors!), choice of tents, cabins and glamping all in one big campground).  Each site is designed to have a unique natural view, with community/group cooking and dining areas with big outdoor kitchens, multiple sinks and tables if you choose to use.  One nice park perk---free firewood!

Day 7: Coeur d’Alene, ID

Happy to report that the wind and the dust were gone and we woke to a beautiful sunny day. Today was our first off day, to take a break from driving and enjoy the lovely town of Coeur d’Alene. We needed to go to the market to replenish our supplies; I was also planning to look into Tumblr to make this a real blog. We decided to go fishing instead. After breakfast we headed to a local fishing/hunting shop, bought Idaho 1-day licenses, and got filled with advice about where to go. Lake Coeur d’Alene is a noted fishing spot for trout, chinook and mackinaw salmon, pike, and smallmouth bass. But, it’s a large lake and to go after the big fish you pretty much need a boat. Another option was to try a smaller lake, Fernan Lake, which is located just on the edge of town, with public fishing piers.

Pretty good trout fishing we were told. So we packed lunch and spent a pleasant afternoon on the dock, and yes we’re having Idaho trout for dinner. Not a ton of action but enough, 2 nice fat trout (the smaller one will be plenty for our dinner tonight), many nibbles, and a few that got away. Fishing appears to be a very popular sport here.  In the 3 hours we were at the dock fishing, we saw a couple of local young folks with their fishing poles and bagged lunch and dressed in office clothes – long sleeved dress shirts, black slacks and black shoes… Made it to the store on the way home, of course we had to get a big Idaho potato to accompany the trout (we did miss the Walla Walla onions in WA!). And some rice. Good eats on the road!

Day 8: Coeur d’Alene, ID, to Garrison, MT, 227 miles

Being that our next stop is “Bernie and Sharon’s Riverfront RV Park”, unusual for an RV park name, we were a little apprehensive.  Leaving Lake Coeur d’Alene, we followed the river climbing the Rockies to the Continental Divide and into Montana. Beautiful forest, mostly pine, fir, and spruce, with now-golden aspen and poplars providing a striking highlight against the multiple shades of green. A pleasant drive through Montana, eventually linking up with the Little Blackfoot river and arriving in Garrison, about 20 miles west of Butte, and the home of Bernie and Sharon’s RV Park.

We met a most friendly Sharon, learned that Bernie had passed about 3 years ago, and learned a bit more about the campground’s history and the plan for its future.  Also learned that there was some great fishing in the Little Blackfoot river that ran just behind the park. After settling in, we grabbed our poles and walked to the river, which I’d really call a creek rather than a river. Georgia started fishing while I was walking to another spot; I heard a whoop and saw Georgia with her pole bent over… she soon landed a nice 15” brown trout!

I fished for another ½ hour with no luck, and getting cold I was just about to call it a day when I got a bite and hauled in an even fatter 16” brown! Amazing that this little ‘river’ had some big fish in it!

This was our first very cold outdoor experience of this trip.  The trout would have partied with Georgia’s crisp frozen fingers if they found these more delectable than worms or Powerbait!  For this evening we used our camper heater for the first time to keep warm.

Day 9: Garrison to Columbus, MT, 246 miles

We had gotten some snow overnight, and the higher peaks around us had a dusting of white. The terrain stayed about the same, mountainous, forested, and with the accents of fall color from the aspens, poplars, and the occasional maple. Driving through Butte and then Bozeman we climbed up the snow-covered mountains; luckily the road was clear and dry. Finally descending we drove into central Montana, where the land became rolling hills, with a mix of cattle ranches and farms growing mostly wheat. It stayed much like this all the way to Columbus, where Mark’s nephew Chris has become a land baron, with over 60 acres where he has plans to build a house in the next year or so. Columbus is a small town in Stillwater County, MT, with about 2000 inhabitants. Chris’ property is not exactly in Columbus though, it was another 8 or so miles up gravel, dirt, and sometimes mud roads to his place. Chris had flown up to meet us there – he’s a captain with United Airlines so gets to fly anywhere, anytime – and welcomed us to his beautiful ranch.

Definitely off the grid up here, no electricity other than the solar panels we have for our trailers, no water other than what we bring, but at least there’s a cellular signal so you’re not totally cut off from the world. Lots of stars in the big sky, and no restrictions on the size of the campfire you build!

Dinner under the stars of chicken adobo, grilled chicken, and both Idaho and Montana trout were delicious. We agreed that the Idaho trout were a bit tastier.

Day 10: Columbus, MT

After a hearty breakfast of thick-cut bacon and one of Georgia’s excellent camp omelets with sausage and veggies (yes, we’re eating too much, too well), we headed out for the day. First a tour of Chris’ estate, and then the 30-acre frontage on the Yellowstone river owned by his homeowner’s association, then into Columbus for lunch. Didn’t we just finish breakfast? Never mind, at the 307 Bar and Grill and Casino (Columbus has about 2000 residents but at least 4 casinos…) we split a delicious French dip sandwich that could easily have fed 4 people.  Georgia noticed that casinos are everywhere in the state of MT….

After a few errands we headed to the Stillwater river for some fishing. Neither Chris nor Mark had any luck but Georgia caught 1 ⅛ fish. You just can’t give her full credit for the first one, but the second was a decent-sized rainbow.

Back to the ranch for campfire and dinner we were all too full for a real dinner but managed to share a locally-raised steak (simply seasoned and perfectly cooked medium rare by Chris!) and some veggies. Tough life on the road…

Day 11: Columbus, MT, to Island Park, ID, 225 miles

Saying goodbye to Chris and setting off from the wilderness of Montana, we head towards out next destination, Yellowstone National Park. Since Columbus was the easternmost point on our route, we first backtrack about 60 miles to Livingston, MT where we pick up US Hwy 89 and head south, following the Yellowstone River all the way into the park. This is a great drive up through a picturesque river valley, with the fall colors vibrant all along the broad river.

We entered Yellowstone at the north gate and quickly arrived at the Mammoth Hot Springs area. Georgia saw her first elk, as a herd of 25 or so cows and one lucky bull were grazing on the grass in front of the visitor center. Just like the deer at home who are surrounded by abundant food but prefer the green grass on the golf courses (and the shrubs in our yard…). We took a walk around the hot springs area, seeing the huge terraces built by the minerals in the hot water. At places, various bacteria that can thrive in the hot water turn the pools many different colors. One of the largest terraces, Jupiter Spring is no longer active – a sign explains that the thermal features in the park are constantly changing, and this particular spring stopped flowing in 1998. Mark remembers that in his first visits to Yellowstone, around 1970 and ’78, the spring being very impressive. I have to see if I can dig up some old pictures.

We drove slowly through the northwest corner of the park, not too far before we saw buffalo, another first for awestruck Georgia (Georgia has only seen these animals in movies or on slot machines – BUFFALOOOOO!, what a sight to see these awesome creatures up close!). We snuck around, feeling safe in a dense thicket of trees, avoiding stepping on their scattered mudpie shaped poops, to get some up-close pictures of the grazing animals. Driving on, we encountered our first “buffalo jam”, with three buffalo ambling slowly down the middle of the road, backing up traffic in both directions. 

They seem to know that they have the right of way, and besides they’re way bigger than you are! Each time they veered from one side to another one or two cars could get by. When we got our chance to pass, a buffalo on Georgia’s side was close enough to the truck that she could have scratched it between the ears, but she declined to do so and just got some close-up photos (and a video to be shared soon). Georgia did personally invite these “bufffaaalloows!” to Las Vegas and to Reno for the “Buffalo Gold” rallies.

As it was getting late in the day we exited Yellowstone to the west, into the tourist-town of West Yellowstone and its overabundance of motels and souvenir shops. We kept going a short way to Island Park, Idaho, the location of our little cabin. Yes, we’re abandoning the trailer for a mid-trip break in a VRBO rental house. Real beds, showers, kitchen, and most important a washer and dryer! Nice cozy place, with a view of Henry’s Lake out the front. A perfect base for exploring Yellowstone.

The cabin provided an extremely comfy bed, clean linen, an immaculately clean toilet and shower, fresh towels, and the ability to wash, dry and fold all our dirty laundry.  The smell of freshly dried clothes, the bathroom mirror and the after-shower mist made us realize that we not only smelled smokey and dirty—we also looked it.

In the next 2 days we will be visiting the Yellowstone National Park daily, entering it from its west entrance and then coming home to our cabin.  Each time we enter and exit to come home, we transverse through 3 states, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, all within 10 miles of driving—how is this possible in the US with all this land?

Day 12: Yellowstone NP

A beautiful day with blue skies and puffy white clouds… but a little chilly, it had warmed up to 33° by the time we left the cabin at 10:00. Back into the west entrance to the Madison junction where we turned south towards the Old Faithful area. Our first stop was along the Madison river to take in its beauty.

Moving on we quickly got into another buffalo jam. They do seem to like to use the roads to move around, they must think it’s the express lane compared to the fields.

Just before we got to the first thermal area we encountered a herd of elk in a meadow. The herd, comprised of around 25 of these huge animals was moving slowly along, seemingly led by the largest female. A single bull with an impressive set of antlers brought up the rear, probably making sure nobody else messed with his harem.

We parked and walked into the Upper Geyser Basin, where we viewed a number of colorful hot springs, and were treated to the eruption of nice little Clepsydra geyser.

As compared to the summer when it’s absolutely packed and crazy, it seemed that there were few people in the park, but at our next stop to see the Grand Prismatic Pool (a big, colorful boiling hot tub) the small parking lot was full and 10-12 cars were waiting for a spot. We drove on to Old Faithful instead.

The Old Faithful area is a big complex with a visitor’s center, restaurants, shops, and of course the elegant Old Faithful Lodge, the grand hotel of the park. Everything is centered around the geyser of course, and walking into the visitor’s center there’s a big digital sign telling everyone the only thing they want to know – when the next eruption is expected. We had about an hour to wait so we got a front-row seat and ate the lunch Georgia had packed for us. About 10 minutes before the expected time the geyser started teasing us with little burps of steam and water. The crowd was getting restless; one little boy near us must have asked his dad a hundred times “when’s it going to erupt?” Finally, right at the appointed time the geyser sprang into action and sent a column of water some 100’ high into the sky. Unfortunately, right at that time the breeze shifted and blew all the steam directly at us, so we saw mostly steam and not much geyser. Oh well, that’s Mother Nature for you. At least Georgia got to see Old Faithful, a must for every visitor to Yellowstone.

Day 13: Yellowstone NP

We awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground (snow was expected on and off all day), and drove back into the park. The snow, and the accompanying low temps, gave the park a new, wintry look and feel. Our first stop was to see the Grand Prismatic Pool which we had missed yesterday. Very few cars in the parking lot this time, and after a short hike we saw… mostly steam. Makes sense that the colder the air gets the more steam the hot water (up to 190°F!) generates. When the steam shifted you could get a glimpse of the turquoise water, surrounded by vibrant orange, yellow and brown deposits. The deposits, and even the blue tint of the pool, turn out to be due to different types of bacteria that thrive in the extreme conditions.

We pressed on past Old Faithful and up towards Grant Village. This took us along the shores of Yellowstone Lake, the largest high-altitude lake in the U.S. We had planned to stop at the village and have lunch in one of the restaurants but found it closed for the season, including all the restrooms! Never unprepared (food-wise) Georgia produced some hard-boiled eggs to tide us over until we could find a place for lunch. That turned out to be in Canyon Village, another 20 or so miles up the road. That trip was interrupted by what was to be a short stop to see a bubbling mud pot along the roadway. There was also a longer, steep trail going to a few more mud pots which we weren’t going to do, but then a young woman coming down the trail told us we really should go up as a herd of buffalo was warming up at one of the hot springs. So up we went and sure enough there was a very contented and apparently warm herd.

The trail was a loop, and as we rounded the pool where the buffalo were, there was one eating right next to the boardwalk. Not enough room to safely walk by, we waited and waited for him to move but he seemed quite content to graze just where he was. Finally getting cold we retreated the way we’d come.

Reaching Canyon Village, one of 3 eateries was open, and we found some pretty good chili and a chicken/broccoli/garlic noodle bowl. Nice to have some hot food on a chilly snowy day!

At Canyon Village we’d just passed the drive along the rim of the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” so we backtracked a few miles and took the drive, stopping at every overlook and walking every trail. It may seem a stretch to call it the “Grand Canyon” when you consider the real thing in Arizona, but even on this cloudy day the beauty we saw, in the colors, the dramatic geology, and the river below, it truly earned the name, and seeing it was a fitting end to our adventures in Yellowstone.

Day 14: Island Park, ID, to Jackson, WY, 85 miles

A tad sad to be leaving the homey comforts of our beautiful Idaho cabin by the lake, we packed up the trailer to get on the road again after our 3-day layover. Nice and brisk this morning, an inch or so of snow on the trailer and 27 degrees when we pulled out shortly before 10:00. A short cruise today over to Jackson, through the Targhee National Forest, lush green punctuated by stands of golden aspen. We made a rapid descent into Ashton, ID and were immediately into rolling farmlands of wheat, and of course, potatoes (saw several seed potato silos and some vodka distilleries along the way). Following small state highways, we passed through many nice towns, seemingly prosperous as judged by the modern amenities available in these towns of less than 2000 residents. Passing into Wyoming, we joined Hwy 22 over the Teton Pass. One of the scariest mountain drives ever (well, maybe not counting most anything in the Philippines…), a very curvy road with 10% grades both up and down. Very happy to have the power and control of the big truck pulling the little trailer!

The plan was to check into our RV park around noon, then head towards Grand Tetons National Park, which you enter only 4 miles north of Jackson. We took a quick stop at the town square in Jackson, with its famous elk antler arches (there are 4 of these, on each corner of the town square). They are something to see and to be photographed with. Plaques explain that all the antlers were collected in the late 1950’s by slave labor (Boy Scouts).

On to the Tetons. We’ve had this weather system the last couple days, with snow flurries and low clouds. The Tetons are very high mountains. Low clouds + high mountains = low clouds. So unfortunately we didn’t have a view of these impressive peaks, but the mists gave what we saw a mystical appearance. Amidst the sun peeking through the flurries of snow and the clouds, you see glimpses of all of Teton’s grandness and its steep canyons separating the peaks’ ridges. A few times, Mark said: “Trust me, the grandeur of those mountains are really there…just covered today.” A good animal day though, we saw deer and antelope (no, they weren’t playing together), elk, and the big catch – a momma moose with her baby (baboose?).

On the way out of the park we took a drive to a Mormon settlement from the 1890’s, that still has a number of original log homes and barns standing. The cold wind with nothing to block it made you think of the difficult life these pioneers had (notice Georgia’s winter wraps? There are 3 more layers underneath!).

Heading back into town we had to stop at the “Million Dollar Cowboy Bar” where Georgia saddled up for a round! Glad we have a not-so-difficult life!

Day 15: Jackson, WY to Park City, UT, 250 miles

We started off with a nice drive down the gorgeous Snake River canyon, running through the Targhee National Forest, for about 60 miles. Beautiful country, especially this time of year with the fall colors against the evergreen forests, the river below, and the white peaks above. We travelled generally south, going through six states in one day! Wyoming, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Wyoming, and Utah. Does that count as six? Anyway it was hard to keep track of which state we were in.

Coming out of the forest around Afton, WY (home of the world’s largest elk antler arch!) the terrain transformed into the ‘high plains’ of mostly ranch land, bordered by high, recently snow-covered mountains. There are a lot of cows here, must be a cow for every person in the U.S.

We ended our travels for the day  pulling into an RV park just a few miles away from Park City, UT. Taking little time to unhitch and set up the trailer, we drove back to Park City. How it’s changed! Mark was last here in 2006, and it was pretty much Main Street and a few adjacent streets. 

Now the malls and condos start miles away, we had to pull over and use Google Maps to find the old Main Street. Thankfully that colorful area hasn’t changed a whole lot, maybe gone a little more high-end, but it’s still a nice walk along many shops, pubs, and restaurants. We took some time over a local brew to research the best place to have buffalo for dinner, that’s on the list for tomorrow, after a visit to Salt Lake City.

Day 16: Local Visits – Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake, 167 miles

On a quest to try bison…

Beyond bison, our plans for today were simple; to learn how Salt Lake City came to be (knew we had to have an understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints or the Mormon religion for this), to go to Salt Lake and either float on it and/or taste it’s brininess, and finally, to have a nice dinner in Park City and satisfy our curiosity about the taste of buffalo meat.

Our morning was unhurried (at least Georgia’s was…) and slept in a bit. Although we did use the furnace to keep the trailer cozy during the night, sunshine and blue skies greeted us by 7:30 am for a change.  We left our camper at the CG and drove to Salt Lake City’s Temple Square which took us about ½ hour.  Not having a detailed plan on how to tackle the Mormon immersion part of the day’s mission, we went into the first open entrance which was along North Street (next to the West St., of course) and went inside the North Entrance Visitor Center. Inside this was at least 3 floors of what we can only describe as America’s Vatican, with a modern twist.  The different types of media they made available for the visitors were remarkably well thought out—paintings, sculptures, videos, narrations, private reflection areas, exploration of the Book of Mormon could be availed through areas with headsets, videos of their history, presentation of its founder Joseph Smith, testaments of missionary work, etc.  We took 1 ½ hours reading, watching and listening.

We got hungry and ended up at Blue Lemon across the street from the Temple Square’s South Gate.  We enjoyed our freshly prepared and well-seasoned veggie wraps and tacos. After lunch we went back into the Temple Square through, and admiring, the square’s middle manicured gardens and had a chance to compliment the 2 young ladies who were on active duty.  We then proceeded to their tabernacle which was open, sat down and listened to the colossal pipe organ being played by this young man, the crescendos meant to vibrate the floor, your seat and your coronaries.

We then made our way to the South Entrance visitor center thinking this would be a smaller version of the North’s visitor Center.  Naaah—this building showcased how Brigham Young led the “flock” to Salt Lake City and how the site for the Temple of our God came to be, how the temple was erected, the tools, the wagons, etc.  Mark noted that one cannot enter the Temple unless you are a Mormon.  Well, this building had a 10 foot replica of the outside structure as well as the inside structure, its rooms and furnishings. Next to it you get to see videos of the actual rooms—WOW!  The furniture and design of the inside is meant to have the purest (think clean, white, gold), most beautiful adornments, best materials, best workmanship, it is after all built for “our God.”

Mark and I agreed that taking the time to understand the Mormon religion a little, the foundation of their beliefs and their history were worth the time. A must do if in Salt Lake City!

Next was a drive to the Great Salt Lake at Utah’s Antelope Island State Park.  The feel of the water – nothing different, the taste of the water – very salty after licking the dried salt crystals on your skin (note from Mark: been there, done that, didn’t feel the need to get crusty  – only Georgia’s skin touched the water this time!), the smell in the air – a lot like a lot of dried shrimp, the walk to reach the water - looong!  But still a must do if you have the time.

Buffalloooooo! We proceeded back to Park City for our dinner of buffalo, and since they didn’t have buffalo steak, Georgia opted for the only steak option in the menu, sirloin steak, while Mark went for the buffalo burger.  The burger didn’t disappoint, had the tenderness of wagyu beef with less fat and the sirloin steak was as tender and flavorful as any steak we’ve ever had.  We have to say the beef in Montana, Wyoming and Utah are certainly the best and that buffalo burger meat is indeed better than beef burger meat.  After researching on beef quality and flavor, we are convinced that the secret to finding good flavorful beef anywhere in the US is finding the right store, one that specializes and takes pride in the fresh meat they sell.

Day 17: Park City, UT to Baker, NV, 221 miles

This was a Blue Bird morning in the language of skiers, even though the ski season has yet to start. White peaks against that cloudless bluer-than-blue sky. We followed US 189 down through the Heber Valley, then through Utah’s Deer Creek State Park. We’ve seen this throughout this trip: snow-capped peaks with green flanks, orange and golden aspens, rivers and lakes. We’re fortunate to live in a place with similar beauty, but to see it over and over with different mountains and rivers and lakes is something we never tire of.

We descended a long grade into Provo, UT, a modern and clean looking place with that college-town look, being the home of Brigham Young University – lots of trendy places to eat, lots of outdoor recreation, flanked by the impressive Wasatch mountains. After Provo the country changed into rolling farm and ranch lands (more cattle) for some time – thinking of all that fresh beef we started looking for a local butcher, drove past the Ashton Farms Burger Barn and Meat Market in Delta, UT (burger of the month: double cheese burger with a crispy chicken breast!) – a quick U-turn and we bought a great looking rib-eye and some elk andouille brats that may make it home or may not…

Soon after Delta, we began our drive through the Great Basin. We already mentioned that the Great Salt Lake was a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a huge ‘ocean’ that covered much of western America. The Great Basin is the bed of this massive lake which is now mostly flat, arid country

We followed US 6 westward for some 60 miles, the road so straight it went on forever; when you reached forever it kept going straight as far as you could see.

We crossed this first part in 60 minutes before we came to a range of interesting mountains – I had the thought that while interesting to me, what did the immigrants think, after days trudging thought this dry land, about these menacing hills? “Interesting” was probably not in their vocabulary. And then, after a steep climb and descent (with the road we traveled blasted through the rock to make it less steep and curvy) what did they see? Another 60 or so miles of the same flat, dry country ending in an even more imposing mountain range. Wow, the immigrants had hope, faith, and perseverance that we’ll never know. This country has a strange, arresting beauty. In some ways the straight flat road tells you to speed up and get across this as fast as you can; the beauty begs you to slow down and take it all in.

After a short prospecting stop – Georgia read about ‘rockhounds’ and wanted to see what it was all about, although neither of us would recognize a precious stone if it hit us in the head – we arrived in Baker, NV, population 68 (people, many more cows). The owner and hostess of the Whispering Elms Motel and RV Park is also the bartender in the saloon, apparently the hopping place in town. Why are we here? Baker was about a 4-hour drive (our standard day) from Park City and is the nearest town to the Great Basin National Park, on the schedule for tomorrow.

After about 10 days in very cold weather we appreciated the warm temps in Baker, put on our flip-flops and set up an outdoor table and chairs as we prefer to do. Poured a glass of wine, got dinner ready, started a fire, had some music going, all the stuff of a nice evening. After dinner as we were cleaning up, a strong, cold wind came up suddenly. Not strong, but STRONG! Got us hurrying to put everything away and get back into the cozy little trailer. Score one more point for trailer vs. tent (which would have been blown into the next county). For the first time Georgia thought our bichon could be flattened easily by that small tree if it fell on us.

Day 18: Baker NV, Great Basin National Park

Winter followed us from Park City to Baker, after last night’s warm start we woke to 20-degree temps and a strong wind that cut right through whatever you could wear. Our 2-gallon water jug was frozen solid!

Great Basin NP wouldn’t ever have been on my bucket list for National Parks to visit, but as it was about half way between Park City and Reno, it was a natural stop and one more NP to check off my list. Very undeveloped, only one paved road into the park, from Baker to Lehman cave. We took a 1-hour ranger-led tour into the caves, which were spectacular, even after many cave visits to more well-known caves such as Carlsbad and Mammoth, these were among the best and most well-preserved cave formations I’ve seen. And that’s after the early years of private exploitation, where the going rule was “if you can break it, you can take it”. Thankfully the formations must be pretty tough and there are a lot left for us to enjoy today, and more that are still forming for future generations.

Great Basin NP is also about the Great Basin. Geologically, it’s recently the leftover lakebed from Lake Bonneville, which covered most of Nevada and much of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, as recently as 12,000 years ago. The Great Salt Lake is the last remnant of this drying lake, but we can see the tale of the ancient lake in its lakebed (now flat and arid valleys) and in the foothills and mountains, once islands in the lake. This has left us with great vistas, wide-open spaces.

We’re most thankful for our leaders who have made efforts to preserve these natural treasures we have, for us to enjoy and for all the generations to come. I’ll probably never make it to every National Park, but I know I’ll enjoy each one that I do see. More to come on the next road trip!

Day 19: Baker NV, to Reno, NV, 383 miles

This was our ‘blast across Nevada’ day, the longest day of driving in this trip. I’d really expected one long, mind-numbing drive across featureless desert. I guess my Nevada geography was off a bit. We started by rounding the northern edge of Great Basin NP, with a great view of 13,065’ Wheeler Peak and the other dramatic peaks in the park.

Up and over the Sacramento Pass and down into the valley below. Across the flat valley and up and over another range, down into another valley, and rinse and repeat... I finally remembered a lesson from a book I read last summer (Hard Road West by Keith Meldahl) which is a history book written by a geologist. It follows the trail of the immigrants to the California gold fields in the 1850’s and ties in how the geology of the land they were traveling over affected their journey, and how the land came to be the way it is. The part that came back to me today was about travel westward through the Great Basin. “Basin” is a hydrogeological term describing how water entering the area doesn’t get out (doesn’t flow to the sea) rather than describing a flat area like the bottom of a wash basin. Anyway, the part that affected the immigrants is that many millions of years ago the basin was indeed flat, and also the west coast was much further west than it is now. The Pacific plate of the earth’s crust moves eastward, sliding underneath the western US plate, pushing California eastward. This compressed the Great Basin causing it to “wrinkle”, forming north-south running ridges – the photo here is looking north into a flat valley between two parallel ranges to the east and west.

The significance of this lesson was lost until today as we repeatedly crossed a 10 or 20 or 40 mile-wide flat valley floor, then an imposing mountain range with a 7500+ foot high pass. Then another, then another, 8 or 9 in all, I lost count, all the way across Nevada, until you come to the baddest wrinkle of all, the Sierra Nevada.

Can you imagine what the immigrants felt when they finally fought their way over a pass, only to look west and see yet another valley and mountain range?

Much of the drive through the Nevada Great Basin was on US 50 – signs appropriately called it “the loneliest road in America”; miles and miles of long stretches of straight one lane roads, repeated after crossing another mountain range. Georgia theorizes that Reno grew to the big city that it is (in comparison to the much smaller and less developed towns we saw along the way) because some immigrants just couldn’t go through another mountain range crossing nor another big lonely valley to trudge through to reach California. It had a little something to do with silver mining noted MC. But, Georgia could not imagine women immigrants traveling this trail… 6 months of wagon camping from the Midwest seems unhealthy with so many environmental challenges to contend with—Reno perhaps was a compromise, as all good relationships require?

Bottom line is that crossing the middle of Nevada was much more interesting than we thought it would be. We’re very thankful we weren’t among those immigrants!

Arrived in Reno a little after 4pm (after 9am start), selling out to the comforts of a shower, clean bed, and a celebratory dinner at the Silver Legacy. That shower felt great (nice when you don’t have to worry about touching the walls or having to balance so your feet don’t touch the floor), and our Sushi dinner was a treat, not just because we haven’t eaten well on the road but it’s something we don’t have at home.

Day 20: Reno, NV to Graeagle, 61 miles

After sleeping in, another shower, and a big breakfast we hitched up the little trailer for the last time on this trip, and made the uneventful 1-hour drive home. The last time we drove home from Reno with the trailer was the day we bought it; I was nervous and checking my rear-view mirror every 2 seconds to make sure it was still there. I feel like a pro now!

A little sad to be ending our adventure, but it’s softened by coming home to beautiful Graeagle. A perfectly blue and warm October day, with the aspens in the front yard a brilliant yellow. Maybe the best way to get over the sadness will be to start planning our next road trip…

[tinyshe]

Story at-a-glance

Judy K. Brown’s book, “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story,” details the conspiracy of silence surrounding the biggest alleged pedophile and sex trafficking mogul of our time, Jeffrey Epstein, and his network of rich and powerful people, which includes Bill Gates

Corruption is rampant throughout our public health agencies and medical organizations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. and the Medicine & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the U.K.

The Gates Foundation also owns shares in Pfizer and BioNTech, raising questions about corruption in the FDA and IHMA, both of which appear to have given Pfizer’s COVID shot preferential treatment despite overwhelming safety concerns and questionable effectiveness

The Gates Foundation is also a primary funder of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which was responsible for the grossly inaccurate modeling that led to several governors ordering COVID patients to be sent into nursing homes

Gates is now calling on the western world to sacrifice itself in order to stave off climate change. But the climate change crisis, like the COVID pandemic, is a red herring, used to justify the implementation of the Great Reset

In the video above, Russell Brand discusses Judy K. Brown's book, "Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story," which details the conspiracy of silence surrounding the biggest alleged pedophile and sex trafficking mogul of our time, Jeffrey Epstein.

The media's refusal to dig into the Epstein story, Brand says, suggests the media are part of a corrupted establishment that protects the rich and powerful, no matter what. One rich and powerful person who enjoys the legacy media's protection is Bill Gates.

Gates and Epstein

Brand cites an article in The Daily Beast,1 claiming Gates had dozens of meetings with Epstein between 2011 and 2014 alone, typically at Epstein's Manhattan home. When news of Gates' relationship with Epstein emerged in 2019, Melinda Gates reportedly contacted a divorce attorney.

According to The Daily Beast, Gates "encouraged Epstein to rehabilitate his image in the media." If true, this suggests Gates may indeed have been closer to Epstein than he's been letting on. An anonymous source who claims to have been present at several of the meetings has said the two were "very close."

The Daily Beast also claims that "people familiar with the matter said Gates found freedom in Epstein's lair, where he met a rotating cast of bold-faced names and discussed worldly issues between rounds of jokes and gossip — a 'men's club' atmosphere that irritated Melinda."

Speaking with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, Gates dismisses his relationship with the notorious sex trafficker of minors as nothing more than a naïve attempt to secure funding for his public health efforts.

Seeing how the extent of Epstein's interest in public health seems to have been an obsession with the idea of creating his own race of super humans by having sex slaves give birth to his babies,2 this excuse seems flimsy at best. Epstein also donated money to the Worldwide Transhumanist Association.3

Gates is now trying to wiggle out from beneath Epstein's dark shadow, calling their meetings "a mistake." Brand may be right, however, when he says that the story of Gates' relationship with Epstein really highlights the importance of retaining our autonomy, and to not blindly follow people who claim superiority over us.

Gates is as flawed as anyone else, and perhaps more so, as wealth and power breed corruption, and allow people to pursue interests that would not or could not be pursued unless you have the money and influence to ensure secrecy.

Gates Funds UK and US Public Health Organizations

If we've learned anything over the past year and a half, it's that corruption is rampant throughout our public health agencies and medical organizations. As reported by Armstrong Economics, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds — and therefore has significant influence over — public health agencies in both the United States and the U.K.:4

"The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] has given full approval to Gates's vaccines because it has been under tremendous political pressure to do so. Even CNBC reported that 'Federal health officials had been under mounting pressure from the scientific community and advocacy groups to fully approve Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine …'

Meanwhile, in London, an investigation has revealed that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are the primary funders of the UK's Medicine & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency just as they are [of] the FDA in the United States.

The SEC has done absolutely NOTHING about insider information since Gates is also a MAJOR shareholder in Pfizer / BioNTech mRNA. There are reliable medical organizations opposing these vaccines despite the approval by two regulatory agencies that are taking money from Gates which only introduces conflicts of interest and potential corruption …

The FDA has NEVER approved a completely new type of medicine in less than one year, which raises serious questions about corruption. The average time it takes to get approval from the FDA is 12 years!"

The London investigation they're referring to was published in The Daily Expose August 20, 2021.5 The MHRA, the British version of the U.S. FDA, actually receives most of its funding from the Gates Foundation, the investigation found.

June 4, 2021, the MHRA extended its emergency use authorization of the Pfizer jab to children between the ages of 12 and 15, despite known risks of heart inflammation. The Daily Expose writes:6

"At the time, the Chief Executive of the MHRA, Dr. June Raine said the MHRA had 'carefully reviewed clinical trial data in children aged 12 to 15 years and have concluded that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits outweigh any risk.'

We are left wondering if Dr. June Raine and the MHRA have even read the results of the extremely short and small study.7 If they have then they would have seen that 86% of children in the study suffered an adverse reaction ranging from mild to extremely serious.8

Just 1,127 children took part of the trial, however only 1,097 children completed the trial, with 30 of them not participating after being given the first dose of the Pfizer jab. The results do not state why the 30 children did not go on to complete the trial … Can we really trust the MHRA to remain impartial when its primary funder is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who also own shares in Pfizer and BioNTech? We don't think so."

Gates Is Heavily Invested in Drug Companies

The Gates Foundation also owns "major shares" in both Pfizer and BioNTech, which jointly developed a COVID shot that August 23, 2021, was granted full approval9 for use in people 16 years of age and older by the FDA.

The Gates Foundation started shifting its investments into pharmaceuticals in 2002. That year, Gates invested $205 million into nine large drug companies, including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. "The decision to take stakes in individual firms appears to be a shift in strategy, and for the first time aligns the charity's interests with those of the drugs firms," The Guardian reported at the time.10

According to The Motley Fool,11 Gates initially invested in Pfizer "with the stated intention of 'expand[ing] access to the pharmaceutical company's all-in-one injectable contraceptive." Once the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Gates predicted early on that Pfizer would be the first to get emergency use approval.

The Gates Foundation didn't pick up BioNTech shares until September 2019, just three months before the COVID pandemic emerged, when it bought $55 million worth of shares.

Gates-Funded Forecasting Led to Nursing Home 'Death Warrants'

The Gates Foundation has also shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which was responsible for the ill-fatedly inaccurate modeling that led to several governors issuing "nursing home death warrants." The Strategic Culture Foundation writes:12

"New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is finally facing the heat for his botched and criminally negligent coronavirus response policies, yet no one seems to be asking why Cuomo and select governors made the fateful decisions that led to the excess deaths …

In March and early April, politicians were informed by the modeling 'experts' at Gates-funded IHME that their hospitals were about to be completely overrun by coronavirus patients.

Modelers from IHME claimed this massive surge would cause hospitals to run out of lifesaving equipment in a matter of days, not weeks or months. Time was of the essence, and now was the time for rapid decision making, the modelers claimed. On two separate April 1 and April 2 press conferences, Cuomo made clear that his policy decisions were based off of the IHME model."

In one of those press conferences, Cuomo thanked the Gates Foundation "for the national service that they've done." The Pennsylvania Health Department also used IHME models to navigate its response. Even federal bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, both of whom have personal ties to Gates as well, leaned on the IHME forecasts to justify lockdowns, business closures and curfews.

In the end, the IHME models didn't pan out. They weren't even close. "For example, IHME used a 3+% death rate when the real number 'from' COVID-19 is only around 0.1%," Strategic Culture Foundation writes, adding:13

"The buck does indeed stop with the elected leaders who made the fateful decisions to send sick COVID patients into nursing homes, lock down their states, and mask up their citizens in perpetuity, but that's only half of the story.

The bad data they used almost exclusively came from the Gates network, which has trafficked in pseudoscience and has demonstrated complete incompetence and reckless forecasting since the beginning of last year."

Not surprisingly, Gates has stayed mum on the gross failures of the IHME. As noted by the Strategic Culture Foundation,14 he has "seamlessly washed his hands of COVID mania and has moved on to demanding that the western world sacrifice itself in the name of the latest 'crisis' that is climate change."

COVID-19 — A Launch Pad for the Great Reset

Of course, Gates' "green" plans will also grow his own wealth, just like the COVID pandemic has done. Indeed, the so-called "climate change crisis" is nothing but another tool to implement the Great Reset, which will forever alter the face of society and commerce, shifting virtually all wealth and ownership to a few technocrats at the top, leaving regular people with no wealth or freedom to speak of.

Considering Gates' position within the technocratic elite, it's no surprise his fingerprints can be found on all the necessary chess pieces of this global chess game. As you may recall, the Gates Foundation co-sponsored the pandemic preparedness simulation for a "novel coronavirus," known as Event 201, in October 2019 along with the World Economic Forum and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The event eerily predicted what would happen just 10 weeks later, when COVID-19 appeared. Both the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum are also partnered15 with the United Nations which, while keeping a relatively low profile, appears to be at the heart of the globalist takeover agenda.

Beyond pandemic preparedness and response, the justification for the implementation of the Great Reset agenda in its totality will be climate change.

The World Economic Forum, while a private organization, works as the social and economic branch of the U.N. and is a key driving force behind modern technocracy and the Great Reset agenda. Its founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab, publicly declared the need for a global "reset" to restore order in June 2020.16

Technocratic rule, which is what the Great Reset will bring about, hinges on the use of technology — in particular artificial intelligence, digital surveillance and Big Data collection (which is what 5G is for) — and the digitization of industry, banking and government, which in turn allows for the automation of social engineering and social rule (although that part is never expressly stated).

Beyond pandemic preparedness and response, the justification for the implementation of the Great Reset agenda in its totality will be climate change. The Great Reset, sometimes referred to as the "build back better" plan, specifically calls for all nations to implement "green" regulations and "sustainable development goals"17,18 as part of the post-COVID recovery effort.

But the end goal is far from what the typical person envisions when they hear these plans. The end goal is to turn us into serfs without rights to privacy, private ownership or anything else. In short, the pandemic is being used to destroy the local economies around the world, which will then allow the World Economic Forum to come in and "rescue" debt-ridden countries. The price for this salvation is your liberty.

The Great Reset

The Great Reset is not some wild conspiracy theory but a publicly released agenda that is moving forward, whether we like it or not.

Many world leaders have spoken about it in an official capacity, and in June 2020, Zia Khan, senior vice president of innovation at the Rockefeller Foundation penned the article19 "Rebuilding Toward the Great Reset: Crisis, COVID-19, and the Sustainable Development Goals," reviewing the "social crisis" necessitating the world's acceptance of a new world order.

The article was co-written with John McArthur, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, which is one of several technocratic think-tanks. Keeping in mind what I've just said about what the Great Reset is really all about, and the justifications used to implement the theft of wealth and freedom, read how they posit these changes as being in your best interest:

"Upheaval can yield new understanding and opportunity. Outdated or unjust norms can succumb to society's pressing need for better approaches. For example, the need for massive and urgent government intervention has drawn fresh attention to social safety nets and the possibility of dramatic policy enhancements.

Tragic consequences of racial discrimination have catapulted awareness of systemic problems and triggered prospects for much-needed social reforms. Rapid environmental improvements linked to economic shutdown have rekindled consciousness of the profound interconnections between ecosystems, economies, and societies …

Rather than passively allowing norms to evolve through inertia or randomness, we can all pursue actions for Response and, soon enough, Recovery in a manner that improve the odds of a Reset toward better long-term outcomes.

Fortunately, we already have a strong starting point for what the world's economic, social, and environmental outcomes should be. Five years ago, in 2015, all 193 UN member states agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a common set of priorities to be achieved in all countries by 2030."

I believe the only way to stop it is through our collective responses to the various pieces and parts of the plan that are being rolled out. They want you to believe that none of the things being introduced have anything to do with each other but, in fact, they are all pieces of the same puzzle.

It would be a tragic mistake to trust Gates or any of the other players that are being brought before us as saviors of the day. They're all wolves in sheep's clothing. The Great Reset is at our doorstep, and your freedom, and that of future generations, hinges on you fighting to keep it.20

Our best bet right now is to involve ourselves in local governance, be it your child's school board or local government, and engaging in peaceful civil disobedience.

Gates may be presented as an all-knowing genius whose mission it is to keep us healthy and safe, but his activities are inconsistent with and fail to match his carefully manufactured persona. Again and again, Gates has wielded influence in matters where lies have been told and public health and human rights have been decimated for profit.

from Bill Gates and the Vaccine Heist , Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola , September 01, 2021

[edgewaterfarmcsa]

CSA WEEK 6

P I C K L I S T

CABBAGE - POTATOES - BLUEBERRIES - TOMATOES (RED & HEIRLOOM) - THAI BASIL - CELERY - BOK CHOY - SUMMER SQUASH - ZUCCHINI - LITTLE CUCUMBERS - CILANTRO - GARLIC - JALAPENO

This week was met with more rain- aka a constant reminder, that it's time for new boots.  Because of the rain crops like your bok choy are currently bathing in standing water.  The bugs are pumped, especially those attracted to wet conditions (hence the little spots on said bok choy).  To be perfectly honest with all of you, it sucks.  YES the fields are wet, and yes the fields need moisture, but goodness gracious the crops will soon drown and rot.  I’m not entirely bummed out just yet, the 10 day forecast looks promising enough.  But let it be known that every drop of rain that comes out of that sky right now is met with an extreme grunt made by yours truly- and probably every other farmer in our region.  

Moving on from the weather (is that even possible??!) The flower fields are exploding with color as we usher in Anne & Mrs. T’s  cut flower CSA.  For those that pick up at the farmstand, you can catch a glimpse of the zinnia field from 12A and it is GLORIOUS. 

In other field reports- mesh lining was added to the tomato greenhouses to frustrate pests looking to enter, THE GREAT ANNUAL GARLIC HARVEST came and went- pretty lackluster harvest due to it not being that fun to pull garlic when the earth is so heavy with moisture (but we still love our garlic crop!!), blueberry season has begun, the heirloom tomatoes are finally catching up with the red tomatoes,  and if we haven't already entered peak summer harvesting and eating, we are getting pretty close to it.  

PRO TIPS:

Your tomatoes:  do you see cracks in your tomatoes?! Great! that means they are ripe for the eating.  Do not sleep on this fruit.  Eat asap, nothing beats a juice ripe just picked tomato in the summertime.  

Thai basil, cilantro, etc… These veggies with the listed herbs are pretty much begging to be incorporated into a vietnamese style rice noodle bowl and or fresh spring rolls.  I am running out of room here for recipes, so give it a google if you need inspo.  

Fried garlic chips 

from my new fave cook book, 

BURMA SUPERSTAR: ADDICTIVE RECIPES FROM THE CROSSROADS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy

Makes about ⅓ cup fried garlic and about ½ cup garlic oil

Ingredients:

½ cup thinly sliced fresh garlic

½ cup canola oil (though i used olive oil and it turned out great)

Line a heat proof bowl with a strainer.  Line a plate with paper towels.  In a wok or small saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat for a minute or two (the oil shouldnt be scorching hot).  Add the garlic and gently stir into the oil.  When bubbles start to form rapidly around the garlic, decrease the heat to low and cook, stirring often, until the garlic is an even golden color and nearly completely crisp, about 3 minutes.  If the garlic starts to darken too quickly, remove it from the heat and let it continue to fry in the oil.  If the garlic needs more time to fry, return the wok to low heat and continue to fry.  

Pour the contents of the wok into the strainer lined bowl.  Lift the strainer up and shake off of the excess oil.  Scatter the garlic onto the lined plate.  The garlic should crisp up as it cools.  The chips can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 month.  Stor the oil in fridge for upto 6 months.  

Ginger salad

Again, from my new fave cook book, 

BURMA SUPERSTAR: ADDICTIVE RECIPES FROM THE CROSSROADS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy

JENNY’S NOTE: I KNOW I KNOW, there is no ginger in your box this week to pickle- and also no romaine lettuce, BUT make do with what you DO have.  For example i used pickled radishes instead of the pickled ginger and this Summer salad remained so bomb.  It’s basically all I want to eat now, you’re welcome.  ALSO I think the THAI BASIL would be awesome in this- give it a shot.  

4 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce

1 ½ cups shredded cabbage

3 heaping tablespoons pickled ginger, chopped

2 tablespoons fried garlic chips

3 tablespoons fried yellow split peas

3 tablespoons cilantro

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped toasted peanuts

2 tablespoons minced jalapenos

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 ½ tablespoons toasted chickpea flour

1 ½ tablespoon onion oil 

2 tablespoon juice from the ginger pickling liquid

2 teaspoon fish sauce

¾ teaspoon salt

1 lime or lemon cut into wedges

In a salad bowl, combine the lettuce, cabbage, pickled ginger, fried garlic, split peas, cilantro, sunflower seeds, peanuts, jalapenos, and sesame seeds.  Sprinkle chickpea flour over the top and drizzle with oil and pickling liquid.  Add the fish sauce and salt (use more salt if not using fish sauce).  Squeeze 1 or 2 lime wedges over the top.  Using your hands, mix well and taste, adding more salt or lime juice if needed. 

JENNY’S NOTE: CHOP AND ADD YOUR CELERY HERE… OR USE IT in ANY OTHER RENDITION OF POTATO SALAD 

 4 pounds potatoes 

1 3/4 cups Greek yogurt (I used full-fat but I think other fat levels would work)

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from half a big lemon)

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon minced fresh dill

1 medium garlic clove, minced

2 teaspoons kosher salt (I use Diamond brand; use less if you use another, read why here)

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cucumber (1 pound), unpeeled but quartered lengthwise, seeds removed

More ideas for additions: Crumbled feta, chopped green olives, chopped fresh mint leaves or a minced hot chile

In a medium pot, cover your potatoes with cold water and bring them to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-high and let potatoes simmer until tender enough that they can be pierced easily with a skewer or slim knife. I find that small potatoes tend to be done in roughly 30 minutes from the time I put them on the stove cold, but it’s best to start checking 5 to 10 minutes sooner. Drain potatoes and let them cool completely. (This is a great step to do ahead, as it seems to take potatoes forever to cool. If you’re really in a rush, spread them on a tray and pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes.)

Meanwhile, in the bottom of a large bowl, stir together yogurt, sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar, dill, garlic, salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Grate the cucumber on a box grater (or in your food processor’s shredding blade, if you like to get things done in one hundredth of the time) and try to remove some of the excess by squeezing out handfuls, pressing it in a mesh sieve with a spoon or wringing it in a square of cheesecloth or a lint-free dishtowel. Add to yogurt mixture.

Once potatoes are cool, cut tiny ones into quarters or larger ones into generous chunks. Add to cucumbers and yogurt and stir to coat. Add any extra ingredients desired. Adjust seasonings to taste. Either eat immediately or keep in the fridge for up to three days.

[lhugbereth]

Coffee Beans and Hot Cocoa

For @ataraxetta who requested “Insomnia’s first snow in decades” for @ignoctsecretsanta :D Here are some fluffy boys snowed in at a coffee shop, on what they didn’t realize was supposed to be their first date. 

Title Coffee Beans and Hot Cocoa (Kisses) Word Count  2524 Rating Teen (SFW) Warnings None! 

Read on AO3

Winter had always been short in Lucis. The continent enjoyed a typically warm climate all year round, from the dust bowl of Leide to the humid mountains of Cleigne, and the Crown City of Insomnia was no exception. In December, the temperature merely fell to a noticeable chill, and it wasn’t until early February that residents went out went out in more than a jacket and scarf. Even then, it had been decades since the last time anyone outside of Galahd had seen snow.

Which is precisely why no one had expected it that year, either.

The forecast on the morning in question called for overcast skies, perhaps a little rain throughout the morning and afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary, or so Ignis had thought when he agreed to accompany Noctis to the video arcade. Prompto, the prince explained, was stuck at school taking a makeup test for one that he had failed, and Gladio was attending some family function that was likely to last until well into the night. Ignis had cringed internally to think he’d been Noct’s last choice to invite, but an opening was an opening, and he’d never been able to say ‘no’ before anyway.

So at precisely 10:30 am, he strolled up to the prince’s apartment building to pick him up. Noct was already outside waiting for him - a pleasant surprise, Iggy thought - and he waved a hand in greeting as he approached. Despite the late January chill, however, Noctis looked about as half-assedly dressed as ever: he wore a dark grey t-shirt under a thin hoodie, bare hands jammed in the front pocket for warmth, while his legs shivered visibly beneath a pair of black jeans. The cold air left his cheeks and nose pink, and his lips trembling as his breath passed between them in short, white puffs.

Ignis slowed to a halt. It was no secret that the prince hated winter - he’d been born on one of the hottest days of the year, and thus his blood had always run warm - but to come outside dressed like this was beyond childish. He was putting his health at risk, and that was something Iggy could not allow.

“Highness, you’re going to catch cold,” he sighed. “At least go back upstairs and put on a proper coat.”

“Yeah, nice to see you, too, Specs.”

“Apologies. Good afternoon, Noctis. Now please go change into something more appropriate.”

The prince shrugged, his shoulders looking small beneath the loose-fitting hoodie. “I don’t have a coat. I lent it to Prompto and forgot to get it back,” he added in response to the incredulous look he was being given. “Besides, it’s gonna be hot in the arcade. I’d just end up carrying it around.”

“Well, you look ridiculous dressed like that in this kind of weather.” Ignis folded his arms across his chest, as if to say You’re not going out like that, young man, and that’s final.

But, as usual, Noctis showed no intention of budging. “If you’re too embarrassed to be seen with me -- “

“You know that isn’t what I mean.”

“Then what’s the problem? I’m not cold, let’s go already.”

“Highness….”

The conversation ended in concession, as it almost always did. Ignis sighed repeatedly as he allowed Noctis to take the lead, refrained from comment while they walked together, though his concern never once abated. Gradually, the further they got from Noct’s apartment the more relaxed the prince became, until he was smiling and joking and hanging back to fall into step with Iggy. The mood was contagious. After a while, even Ignis found himself caught up in the playful way Noctis was clinging to his arm, and the way his eyes shone when he laughed. Though the air had grown noticeably colder, Ignis felt his cheeks flushing with warmth.

Perhaps that was why he failed to notice at first. Too distracted by the sensation of Noctis’ fingers coiled around his elbow, it wasn’t until the gentle flakes landed on his skin that he even realized it had begun to snow. His eyes widened at the same time as Noct’s, and together they paused to look up at the sky in awe.

“Specs?”

“Yes, Noct?”

“Is that...what I think it is?”

“It would appear so.”

The prince shifted closer, as if suddenly noticing the cold for the first time. “I’ve never seen snow before.”

“I have, but never in the city. This is highly unusual, and yet….”

“It’s beautiful.”

Ignis’ breath hitched in his throat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Noctis, lips parted and gaze cast up toward the blanket of clouds above them. All around, white flakes drifted down, down, growing thicker and heavier by the second, until they began to cling to jet black hair and clothes alike.

“...You must be freezing,” he observed aloud, if for no other reason than to silence the pounding of his own heart at the sight. “Here, take my scarf.”

Noctis didn’t protest this time. As Ignis unwrapped the thick, chocolate-colored fabric from his shoulders, the prince remained completely spellbound by the snow falling all around them. He watched on, wide-eyed, as it began to collect on the sidewalk, the grass, and even on Ignis when he turned to face him. But despite the cold, Iggy was smiling. His scarf was so warm - smelled of coffee and citrus and the cologne he sometimes wore - and Noctis immediately held it to his face and breathed in deep.

“Thanks,” he said, voice muffled by the heavy wool. “You’re not cold?”

Green eyes, soft behind fogged lenses, seemed to draw him in. “Not at all. But perhaps we should find a warm place to wait until this storm blows over.”

Noctis agreed, and they turned off the main road in search of shelter.

They found it moments later in the form of a Garbucks coffee shop, thankfully still quiet in the hour before the lunch rush, and together they settled down with steaming mugs to watch the snow fall outside the window. Ignis sipped his latte - it was hardly an Ebony, but at least it went down smooth - while Noctis nursed a hot cocoa, and they talked together while the hours melted away.

The lunch crowd came and went, and outside the snow only fell heavier, piling higher and higher until Ignis began to wonder how they would ever get home. By that time, Noct had wiggled in beside him in the overstuffed armchair, and had his head resting on Iggy’s shoulder while they talked. It was comfortable, relaxing, neither of them thinking anything more of the display than how natural it felt to cuddle close. All the while, Noct wore Ignis’ scarf around his neck.

“Well,” Iggy announced at last. “I’m afraid we’re going to need to call for backup at this point. Otherwise we may be stuck here in this coffee shop all night.”

“Like you’d really mind,” Noct grinned, referring, of course, to Iggy’s love for coffee and completely missing the blush that flared across his friend’s cheeks. “But I guess we could call Gladio. He’s got his dad’s truck.”

Something tugged at the back of Ignis’ mind. "I suppose we could," he began slowly.

"Or maybe we could make it to Prom’s place. He lives near here, and his parents usually aren’t home."

"Is that so?" Suspicion rose in the form of a frown. "I thought Prompto was meant to be at school all afternoon."

“O-oh, right. Yeah, he is,” Noct supplied hastily. “Uh, I meant maybe if he finished early. Or something.”

“And Gladio?” Now Ignis was looking right a him with one eyebrow arched high over piercing green irises. “I believe it was you who told me he’d be occupied until evening?”

If Noct could have sunk back any further into the chair, he would have disappeared right through the cushions. “Um…. I forgot?”

“Noctis.”

“Alright, alright! So I made that stuff up - but it’s not like I had a choice or anything. It was the only way to get you to come out with me.”

Whatever Ignis had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t such candid honestly. And the way the prince was flushing, cheeks red as he glared out the window…. Suddenly, he was very much aware of the proximity of their bodies in the chair. “What are you talking about?” he pressed, forcing his voice lower, calmer, hoping he didn’t sound as panicked as he felt in that moment.

Practically in his lap, Noctis huffed. “Seriously? Whenever I try to spend time with you, all I hear is, ‘I’m busy, Highness, why not call Prompto?’ or ‘Surely Gladio has nothing better to do today?’” Despite the poor attempt at mimicking his accent, the words still managed to hit Ignis like a blast of icy water. He hadn’t actually said those things to the prince...had he?

Still avoiding his gaze, Noct continued. “I had to make it feel like an obligation, otherwise you would have just passed me off on someone else again.”

“That…. That has never been my intention.”

“Oh, yeah?” Blue eyes turned on him at last, wounded and yet heavy with something else, too. Hope, perhaps, that he would be proven wrong. “What would you have said, then?”

Ignis’ chest was tight, his fingers itching to pull Noctis against him and take back every missed opportunity. What would he have said? He tried to imagine the scene: Noct catching him on his way home for the evening, casually inviting him to spend a day at the arcade. It wouldn’t have mattered that he wasn’t really interested in games, or that he had work to do in the morning. He would have wanted to go. He would have wanted to tell Noctis yes, to please him, to see him smile. He wanted to give Noct the world and then some, because he --

Ignis sighed. It was precisely because of that - because Noctis had come to mean more to him than his duty or his job - that he would have been forced to turn him down in the end. It was too great a risk. “I...suppose you have a point.”

“See.”

Voice falling flat, the prince turned his gaze back to the window and to the heavy flakes of snow falling beyond it. Outside, the streets had been transformed into a winter wonderland, everything from the sidewalks to the streetlamps swallowed up in white. There were no pedestrians, no cars, no bicycles. Even the small coffee shop had grown all but silent around them, most of the other patrons no doubt having escaped while there had still been a chance. Only a few others were left sitting at the tables in the back of the shop, Iggy noticed, and not a single one of them was looking his way.

He swallowed.

“Noct? May I ask you something?”

A noncommittal shrug told him the prince was, in fact, upset.

“Why me? You could have asked anyone in the Citadel to accompany you to the arcade.”

“Because I didn’t want to go with anyone in the Citadel,” Noct murmured so quietly that Ignis wasn’t quite sure he heard him correctly. “Today was supposed to be special.”

Ignis glanced out at the snow again, the first that had fallen in Insomnia in more years than either of them had even been alive, and smiled. “Today has been special.”

"Yeah, but. It was supposed to be….” Noctis shrugged, waved his hands in the air and sighed, but ultimately just sank back in the chair in frustration. “It was supposed to be more.”

More.

Ignis thought about the sight of the prince, dressed in an obvious hurry, waiting for him outside of the apartments. He thought of the easy way Noctis had laughed and hung from his arm as they’d walked together down the street. He thought, too, of the color of those soft cheeks when he’d draped his scarf around Noct’s neck, the deep eyes that had watched him in wonder.

More.

His throat went dry. How could he have missed it? How long had the signs been there while he’d been too determined not to see them? How many times had he convinced himself it was impossible that Noct could ever feel the same way as him? And how in the Astrals’ names was he ever going to find the strength to talk them both out of this one?

“...Noct, I-”

“It’s stupid, I know. Just forget I said anything, alright?”

“It isn’t stupid. But you know as well as I do that we...we simply can’t.”

Blue eyes rounded on him in surprise. “...Can’t what?”

“Date, Noctis! It would be highly improper! Just think what your father would do to me if he found out!”

But there was that color tinting the prince’s cheeks again, the one that made it clear Noct had seen right through him. And sure enough, the next words out of his mouth confirmed exactly what he’d read between the lines. “But...you’d be okay with it?”

Ignis snapped his mouth shut instantly. There was nothing he could say short of an out-right lie that would prevent him from walking right into a trap. As it were, perhaps it was already too late. The prince was regarding him with more than just casual interest now, and swiveling in the chair to face him more fully.

“What if this was a date? Right here, just the two of us, with no one to see,” he asked, smile growing a little bolder with each word. “What would you do?”

The awkward sound that started in the back of Iggy’s throat was hidden masterfully behind a polite cough. “Hypothetically? Well. I suppose I would….” Six, forgive me. I’m only human. His arm was moving before he could change his mind, sliding up the length of Noctis’ back between him and the cushion to finally come to rest around his shoulders. When Ignis drew him in, the prince settled easily against his chest.

“Wow,” Noct breathed, face flushing an even prettier shade of red. “It’s nice. H-hypothetically, I mean.”

“Right.”

“I don’t...want to go to Prom’s place.”

Ignis stroked his fingers over the strands of black hair lining Noct’s cheek. “We could stay a little while longer, I suppose.”

“Call Cor, tell him we got snowed in?”

“At a Garbucks, of all places.”

“Might have to stay here all night from the looks of things.”

“Better not get any ideas, Highness.”

Noct grinned up at him - a brilliant, mischievous grin - as he somehow managed to shift even closer against his side. He drew himself up, curled his fingers in the collar of Iggy’s dress shirt and pressed forward until the scarf around his neck was the only barrier between them. Ignis, for his part, forgot how to breathe. “Ideas? Never. This is all hypothetical.”

And so it went that Ignis and his prince shared their first kiss in the cozy warmth of a coffee shop, wrapped in each other’s arms in an overstuffed chair while the snow continued to fall outside the window well into the winter’s night.

[lightholme]

I am stranger in a strange land. I have no skill in making anything useful--not with the tools of this age--and my body is ill-suited for hard labor. I decide to go from farm to farm until someone is willing to give me simple work that can be communicated without words. At least my regeneration will help me recover quickly.

I am kicked off a farm almost immediately. Within an hour or two it is obvious that I'm slower than a ten year old child of this time, and the farmer has no desire to share his hard-grown food with this oddly-garbed, weak-limbed creature. I have learned two words which I believe mean "barn" and "worthless piece of shit" (or something of that nature); I cannot pronounce either, but I repeat them as I walk.

I am near a city and the farms are blessedly close. Even so it takes close to a full day before I find another farm that allows me to do some work. My benefactor this time is grizzled and care-worn, yet I think he is touched by my helplessness. I work a few hours and eat for the first time, the flavors strange and bland to my palate. My vocabulary gains a few more words, but most of the communication is through hand gestures, though even that is surprisingly difficult. I sleep in the barn, rain dripping though the slats keeping me awake long into the night.

I had the good fortune to arrive during planting season. As I grow accustomed to the work, I feel I am less of a burden than I was at first. Perhaps I am even, barely, earning my keep. But, more to the point, my vocabulary is improving considerably and I am now speaking in short, simple sentences.

The summer is busy for me. I know I cannot stay here; after harvest I will need to find other accommodations. I know that learning to write is of the utmost importance, but there are no books to be found. Instead I slowly, painfully copy characters I see written wherever I find them, practicing them with the burnt ends of sticks on rock until I can form them quickly, even if I do not know their meaning.

My benefactor, who has the habit of occasionally looking on as I practice my "writing", surprises me one day we are in the city. He introduces me to a man whose function I do not really grasp, but who seems to be some sort of clerk. In any case, he is willing to write out some sentences and tell me what they mean. His accent is new to me, the vocabulary strange, and I drink it in. This man has some education. I use my charcoal collection to write the translations in English and he asks what language it is. I have no answer, so I tell him I made it up. He laughs. For many nights after, I copy these passages again and again.

I visit the clerk at every opportunity. The farmer is understanding. He is kind, and seems to care about me, but I also see relief in his eyes that I will not ask to stay the winter. The clerk has become a friend, and he willingly supplies me with new words and corrects my fledgling script. Luckily, the script is simple and rather flexible--much simpler than English--and my progress is rapid.

My writing has become quite serviceable, and well that it has, because the harvest is done and the preparations for winter have begun. I still work much of each day, but soon I will need to find new accommodations. The clerk, who it turns out takes dictations from the wealthy and illiterate, helps me find a job doing inventory and bookkeeping for a successful shop. It pays so little that I can scarcely afford to house, feed, and clothe myself, but I have ready access to quill pens and now my real work can begin.

On wood, stone, and any other surface I can find, I begin writing down everything I remember. About textiles, manufacturing, mathematics, psychology, history, and medicine. I write in English, and in great detail, developing a shorthand for my relative certainty about these facts.

Over the next several years, my education proves invaluable. The owner of the shop, at first scornful of my work, becomes, if not a friend, then at least an ally. I show him how to reduce inventory carrying costs using LEAN techniques and predictive forecasting of purchasing trends. I introduce a formal loyalty program, employ (relatively) sophisticated product pricing strategies, and he is generous in rewarding me as his wealth burgeons. The clerk is happy for my success at first, and I even try to help him, but the role reversal does not suit him well and we stop spending time together. When he dies a few years later, I don't even know. The farmer I visit occasionally. It is awkward, but I owe it to him. The shop purchases most of what he produces at a good price, and that is perhaps the only meaningful thing I give to him before he dies, quietly, eight years after I arrived.

It is during this time that I sow the seeds of wealth. I save every coin I can and found an informal bank. I am allowed to operate out of the shop owner's buildings in exchange for a 20% share of profits. He is skeptical at first, but it costs him nothing. By the time he dies, nearly 30 years later, it is more than half his annual earnings, according to the quasi-accounting team I now employ. I purchase the business from his widow for a sizable sum, sufficient to keep her in comfort for her few remaining years.

It takes time to find and train someone to handle the day-to-day management of the bank and the shop (still known as such, though it has expanded a dozen times and offers the finest and most varied wares in the city), but once accomplished, I turn my attention to my new project: a university. I pay to build it, but the ongoing costs are covered by the students, mostly the children of the obscenely wealthy. I need to be careful--some of my ideas could draw the wrong kind of attention--but I begin rigorously training them in the scientific method, drawing on every elementary school experiment I can remember. I find I enjoy this. Aside from some dalliances, I lead a fairly solitary existence. The children make me feel connected, meaningful.

It is time to deal with the issue of not aging. I establish a bank and university in two cities perhaps a month's journey away from each other and begin passing myself off as my own son or grandson. Every twenty years or so I rotate, managing the affairs of the other location by correspondence. Some of the students have grown up and become teachers. This is both heartwarming and inconvenient.

I have good paper now, just one of the many fruits of my universities. I publish a "book of prophecy", in which I attempt to capture all my recollections of science and phrase it as if they were clever guesses. This is perhaps all I can do to guide and hasten their progress. I continue to write down my memories, but I have not remembered anything new in a very long time.

I fall in love. She is young--everybody is young, when you have lived a century and a half--and she is bright, and she worships me, yet speaks to me candidly and without guile. Before I ask her to marry me, I tell her the truth about who I am, something I have never done before. I show her the vast piles of writings, copied and recopied in an ever greater expanse, organized and re-organized, indexed and cross-referenced a hundred ways. She does not believe me. She is not cruel, but she leaves the university soon after and I do not see her again for many years. For the first time, I contemplate death.

Impatient with the rate of progress, I use my wealth and prestige to forge a political career. I have no wish (or facility) to run a nation, but I advise, and my banks give my words weight. I do my best to resolve conflict and establish universities in every allied country. The thing I remember with the sweetest nostalgia, other than air conditioning and hot water, is TV shows. It is a bizarre, ridiculous thing to work toward, but I throw my wealth and centuries and harness the combined intellectual power of every major nation to make me some damned talkies

. It takes a long, long time.

It is 750 years before the world is "modern" in my eyes, though history has taken a vastly different shape. We had no dark ages, no long stretches of stagnation. For all the many gaps in my knowledge, there are always brilliant minds to discover--or even to leapfrog--the reality I recorded, which now seem another man's writing. I assume different identities now, controlling my enterprise through elaborate mechanisms of separation. My personas are primarily political as I continue to try to guide events. I succeed, though less with every passing century. I wonder, sometimes, if I should let loose the reigns, now that I have nothing to offer other than my accumulated wealth.

[raisingsupergirl]

You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take—A Deer Hunting Story

I feel like God's always trying to teach me things. I mean, I’m not always paying attention, but every time I do, there's something in my life that reflects some little nugget of wisdom. And this past weekend, I hit the mother load. Granted, I was paying attention since I was on vacation in the woods, but no amount of "real" world monotony could have possibly distracted me from it. But let me start at the beginning.

First off, I'm not a hunter. Yes, I go deer hunting every year, but only on the opening weekend of rifle season. For reference, I spend more time doing my taxes every year than I do hunting, but I'm definitely no accountant. Anyway, I go hunting because it's a vacation. This time of year is always crazy, and the prospect of going to deer camp without any electricity, running water, traffic, 'rona, or politics is the highlight of my fall. And that's saying something considering all of the drawbacks: the aforementioned lack of running water and plumbing, the waking up every few hours throughout the night to put wood in the stove, the waking up before dawn to march down to my tree stand, the bitter cold while sitting in said tree stand. Oh, and putting in all of that time, effort, and money year after year only to come home without even seeing a deer. That is, until last year when I killed my first doe out of a new tree stand. Which meant this year, I was pumped. There were actually deer in those woods! And I had a good chance of another successful hunt this year. So, with my energies renewed, my brother and I drove down to camp, we cleaned things up, I cooked some fat, juicy steaks, we spent a relaxing evening around the fire, and we turned in for the evening, visions of monster bucks dancing in our heads. I was pumped! Well, mostly. Unfortunately, there was a black cloud hanging over my head.

No, seriously. It was a rain cloud. The forecast threatened storms pretty much the whole next day. And cold plus rain equals a cranky Andrew. But when we woke up Saturday morning, guess what? It wasn't raining! The forecast still promised precipitation, but now it wasn't supposed to hit until late morning, which meant I didn't need to march out into the cold, wet hell with a raincoat and a prayer. No, I would suit up in my usual camo and keep my eyes extra sharp, and with any luck, I'd bag a deer before the first raindrops fell. That was the plan, anyway…

Okay, waking up before dawn might suck, but seeing that sun come up over the ridgeline is magical. And last Saturday morning was no exception. The forest was completely silent. No wind. No squirrels. A thin line of orange stretched across the horizon. It thickened, chasing back the dark. It painted the tops of the tallest trees. The first hints of shadows turned every limb into what looked like a trophy buck. My heart quickened. Even in the overcast sky, the sun burned with a promise—this would be a morning worth the effort. But it would have to be a quick one, because the rain was rolling in at ten.

I sat comfortably for an hour. Like I said, no wind, and the temperature was above frostbite levels. Life was good, and my eyes were indeed sharp. Around 8:30, I saw something white flicker off to my right. Yes, there, about eighty yards away, was a deer. A doe, if I had to guess, but there were so many trees in the way that I couldn't be sure. And I definitely didn't have a clear shot, so I waited. Ten minutes went by without much change. That thing must have found a mother load of acorns, because it wasn't moving. That is, until a few minutes later when another deer came trotting down the ridge from the right. Deer 1's head popped up, but they must have been buddies, because it greeted Deer 2 without so much as a grunt. The two of them occupied themselves with that same plot of ground for another ten minutes, and I STILL didn't have a shot.

This was getting ridiculous, and I was getting impatient. The sky wasn't getting any lighter, and the forecast wasn't getting any better. So I leeeaaaned forward, and I leeeaaaaned back, and still I couldn’t get a clear shot. Oh, did I mention that I hunt with an open-sights rifle? At that range, I could have taken either of those deer easily if I'd had a scope. But as it was, every time I tried to level my sights, all I could see was gray haze. My excitement was cooling by the second. And the frustrations of life started creeping back in. Nothing ever worked out like it was supposed to. 2020 couldn't get any worse. People were always fighting. They were always telling me what I should do, and no one ever listened. But not here. Not in the woods. Here, I made my own rules—my own destiny. And so, I aimed at my best approximation of Deer 2's heart and squeezed the trigger.

Deer 2 was gone. Deer 1 bolted down to the left. I kept my sights on it. I almost fired again. But what if Deer 2 was lying dead behind the trees? Too long. Too much hesitation. Deer 1 was gone now, too. I called my brother, who was in his stand about three quarters of a mile away. I told him I thought I'd downed Deer 2, and he told me to wait a while and go check. So, naturally, I immediately got down from my stand to claim my prize. And when I got there, no deer. No blood. Nothing but crushed hopes and impending rain. I returned to my stand for a bit, but I was done. I'd forced the shot, and I'd blown it. An hour later, I was back in the cabin, lying on my futon, listening to rain pattering on the tin roof, wondering where it had all went wrong.

But you know what? It was still a good day. I wasn't going back out in the rain, but the next day was supposed to be bright and sunny—zero chance of precipitation and pretty warm. So you know what I did the rest of the rainy day? I took a nap. Why? Because I could. No one to tell me otherwise, and no pressing tasks I should be working on. I ate snacks, too. And drank some beer. And listened to the rain outside and the crackling wood stove at my feet. By evening, I was feeling optimistic again. There were deer in those woods! And I had a good chance of a successful hunt tomorrow. Especially since I would have all day to wait for the perfect shot!

I slept like a baby that night. Well, I would have, had there not been monsoon winds and literal tornado warnings. The rain came in sideways. Literally. It came in the cabin through the upper window. It sounded like the walls were about to tear off and leave us for dead. And while I usually love storms, this one felt different. It felt like the storms in my real life. It felt like it was trying to tell me what to do, how to live. It threatened to determine my future and dampened my spirits once again. And when I did finally go to sleep around midnight, I dreamed anxious dreams. Dreams of hackers taking over all the electronics in America and rioters tearing down everything I loved.

But then, the strangest thing happened. When my alarm went off at 4:45, I felt great. Not groggy. Not anxious. Not cold. Optimistic warmth coursed through my veins once more. I was actually smiling. The storm had moved on, and outside, the stars were shining brighter than I'd seen them in years. And as I stood there looking up at them, I felt God's promise. He would bring me a deer this day. Maybe even my first buck.

When I got to my stand, the feeling continued. An owl hooted nearby. The sun rose again, brighter this time. The woods were practically glowing. I settled in and surveyed the landscape. I knew every tree, every limb, every hill, and every valley. If a deer came through, I'd see it. And I'd kill it. And a couple hours later, I saw movement.

It all happened so fast. The deer was trotting from left to right across the ridge. My gun was at my shoulder. I only had a few seconds, so I squeezed the trigger. But the deer kept running, faster now. I shot again. The deer changed direction. He was running down the hill now, straight for me, through the trees. After my third shot, he turned back to the left, but his run turned into a walk. And then I lost him behind some brush, and he never came back out. He HAD to be down. I called my brother again. "Is it the zombie apocalypse?" were his first words. I laughed. "Wait a half an hour," he said. Five minutes later, I saw movement. The deer was standing. Looking around. It was a buck. Then I lost sight of him again. I waited another ten minutes, but I couldn't wait any longer. God had promised me a deer, after all. So I climbed down and crept toward my kill. About twenty yards away, he jumped up and ran down the far side of the ridge. Crap. I'm an idiot. Why didn't I listen to my brother? I searched for blood. Nothing. Of course there was nothing. I was no hunter. I was no tracker. This deer was gone. But I followed him nonetheless, clinging desperately to a fool's hope.

Over the river and through the woods, but I had no idea where I was going. But it wasn't long before a suspicion tickled my thoughts--I was walking straight for my brother's stand. It was enough to keep me going (and yes, he’s a very responsible hunter and has zero track record of shooting people), and at the bottom of the hill, I heard the distinct sound of a deer's bleat. My brother assures me that's not the right word for it, but it's the only way I know how to describe it. After a few hundred more yards of walking, I heard a shot from the direction of my brother's stand. No way. I stopped and waited, afraid to get any closer to the kill zone despite wearing my "I'm not a deer!" orange. My pace quickened, and so did my pounding heart. Another shot. Then my brother called.

"Did you kill my deer?" were my first words. "He's laying right in front of me, looking right at me," he said. "I can't believe he's not dead. Want me to shoot him again?" After a few minutes, I finally said, "Yes." And he did. And it was over. The deer was dead at last. And it was a five-point buck.

We talked for a while, trying to figure out what the heck had happened, and then we inspected the kill. I'm not going to tell you how many times we shot it, but that thing was a fighter, that's for sure. And when I took it to the meat processing place, the guy literally shook his head. "Which one of you shot him in the butt?" he asked. He pointed out all of the holes, piecing the hunt together like a CSI analyst, then he promised me that he'd salvage as much meat as he could. That was fine.  I'd killed my first buck. Well, WE had killed my first buck. Do you know how weird that is? Do you realize the odds of that deer running directly from my stand to my brother's? Do you know how unlikely it was, considering the infinite amount of directions it could have gone out from that single point? Well, I don't either (math isn't my strong suit), but it's pretty danged unlikely, that's for sure. God had definitely delivered that deer despite my impatience. Despite my burning desire to make own luck.

It's impossible to unpack all of my thoughts and emotions as I replay the events of that hunt in my mind—the significance of the events of the whole weekend, really. But I'll try, and I'll leave the interpretations up to you. Like many of you, my life is a storm right now. I don't know what my future holds. I'm being pulled a thousand different directions. I'm trying so hard to make my own fate, but it seems impossible when everything's so uncertain. When each day brings a new, unexpected obstacle. But I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to let external circumstances bog me down or force me into a life I'll regret. And I keep thinking, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Now, before you smart people say anything, I know that's not how math works (despite it not being my strong suit). I know there can't be a percentage at all if the value of N is zero. But the sentiment rings true. I forced the shot on Saturday, and I missed. I forced several shots on Sunday, and I missed at least one of them, and I didn't truly hit my mark with any of them. And yet… God answered my prayers. Despite all odds, he used my brother to deliver my first buck in the strangest way I can imagine. There's no other way I can describe it.

Life is crazy for everyone right now. We're all doing our best just to hang on. The storm is still raging, but the forecast is looking better. There are times when we force the shot, but it's better than the alternative. We can't just let our hopes and dreams walk away over the ridge. If we do, we may never get another chance, and we'll regret it forever. We'll go home empty handed with nothing but a story about the deer that got away. So I, for one, will continue pulling the trigger. Why? Because I serve a faithful God. I know he is watching over me. I know he shakes his head at me every day, wondering why I don't see his signs, why I don't wait for the clear shot that he's setting up for me. With time, maybe I'll see a little clearer. Maybe I'll line up my shot a little more carefully. But for now, I'm doing the best with what I have. And I'll trust God to provide for me despite all odds. And next deer season, I'm definitely bringing a rifle with a scope.

[covid19worldnews]

Flooding in Napier as heavy rain sweeps across North Island

Flooding has swept through many Napier streets, prompting evacuations, rescues and causing widespread damage, and a local state of emergency has been declared.

Dozens of people have been evacuated from Napier, and firefighters have responded to more than 80 properties. Photo: RNZ/ Tom Kitchin

Wild weather is hammering Napier, with slips, flooding and leaking roofs causing chaos. Firefighters have been called to assist flooded buildings, and power is out to many properties.

People were being urged to stay inside, as long as it was safe to do so, and not to drive or to come into contact with the floodwaters, which could be contaminated.

Those who need assistance were asked to call 111 for help, and not Napier Fire Station.

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise has declared a local state of emergency in Napier. Updates, including road closures, are being published on the Hawke’s Bay Emergency Management website.

MetService warned the rain could continue until late tonight, and more is expected tomorrow.

#Napier #NewZealand https://t.co/hwJ5yHGENV

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) November 9, 2020

Hawke’s Bay Emergency Management controller Ian Macdonald said at least 30 people had been evacuated due to what he called a one in 100 year event.

Rescues and assisted evacuations were being carried out on a case-by-case basis, depending on the risk presented by the flooding and land slips, but he said if people felt unsafe where they were they should self-evacuate.

Fire and Emergency NZ Area Manager Ken Cooper said there were 14 urban and rural crews responding to more than 150 calls for assistance, mostly from people in Napier city.

A large slip has affected houses on Brewster Street, Napier. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin

About half of the calls for help had been responded to, and workers expect to continue through the night. Calls to people who need hospital treatment, the elderly and those in danger were being prioritised.

“We are triaging calls for assistance for homes flooding and roofs leaking, and have removed some elderly from their homes to stay with relatives,” Cooper said.

Hawkes Bay’s Urban Search and Rescue team is assessing 16 properties at risk from slips on Napier Hill, and checking people still there were safe, he said.

“There are people still in those houses, so that’s really our primary concern, to do a rapid assessment.”

Photos posted online showed deep water in many streets, with cars and a shipping container floating in streets inundated with floodwaters.

A man helping with rescue efforts told RNZ he had to fight through chest-deep water to get to houses.

On Facebook community pages people have warned that motorists driving fast through flooded streets were sending wake into flooded buildings. Others had offered their houses as safe places for people to take refuge if they could’t get home, or had to leave their home.

People who have evacuated have been asked to stay with friends and family where possible, but an evacuation centre has opened at Kennedy Park Resort camping ground in eastern Napier.

Teresa Vercoe didn’t reach her beloved car in time to save it from rising floodwaters in Barker Road. Photo: Supplied/ Teresa Vercoe

Power outages were affecting nearly the entire city, and the Unison power company said more than 3000 customers had no electricity. The company’s website said the problems weren’t expected to be resolved until Tuesday afternoon.

A local 4WD group posted online offering to help rescue people stuck in buildings in the city, with one saying he had to retreat after rescuing one person, as the water was already at bonnet level.

Some Napier schools have said they will be closed on Tuesday due to the flooding.

Flooding in central Napier. Photo: RNZ/ Tom Kitchin

Forecasters warned Hawke’s Bay residents that up to 130mm of rain could cause surface flooding and driving hazards from this afternoon, when rainfall rates could reach up to 40mm/h during thunderstorms. With “another burst of heavy rain possible on Tuesday.”

Brewster Street 17-year-old Jesse Pether said a slip outside his house had completely blocked the road, and sent floodwaters into a neighbouring house.

“I had my back turned and it sounded like thunder crashing, and it was this slip from two doors down just across the road – trees falling, poles and mud everywhere, and then water flooding it up, like a huge pool.”

Napier South resident Amanda said the amount of water was daunting.

“It’s just as though there’s a river going down the road, and I’ve lived here off and on since I was three, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

A man paddles an inflatable unicorn up the road, on Essex Street, Napier. Photo: Supplied/ Tori Spellar

RNZ Reporter Tom Kitchin told RNZ’s Checkpoint he had been trapped in his office during the evening by flooding outside the building and torrential rain.

“The rain is very heavy… I don’t want to go outside because I know a whole lot of water will come into the office, it’s that bad at the moment. I can see the roads are flooded all over.

“Fire and Emergency NZ are quite busy… they’re just getting multiple calls. A lot of buildings have been flooded, there’s a lot of surface flooding, and I’m just hearing sirens blaring all the time at the moment.”

Hawke’s Bay Medical Officer of Health Nick Jones said floodwaters could carry bugs that cause disease from the ground surface and sewerage systems.

Dr Jones said people shouldn’t eat any food that has been in contact with flood waters, and should avoid contact with the water.

️ Record breaking rainfall in Napier ️

2nd wettest day on record (since 1870): 237 mm (and counting) since 9am

423% of the November normal in a single day

Wettest hour on record (since 1995): 54 mm between 5-6pm pic.twitter.com/TIF4IYIJem

— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) November 9, 2020

Napier City Council said by 8pm Monday more than 110mm of water had fallen at Napier Airport since the start of the day, with about 100mm falling between 12pm and 8pm.

“Due to the significant amount of rainfall, manhole covers were beginning to lift, and the escaping water would have caused a public health risk.

“So the decision was taken to release pressure from the wastewater network and discharge wastewater at 5:45 pm this evening, into the Purimu stormwater stream, which flows out to sea through the Ahuriri Estuary.”

The regional council environmental team will monitor the stormwater network as well as at several other locations for a number of days, to trace the effects of the discharge.

The city council said the deluge was causing problems for the wastewater network, but the emergency discharge to the Ahuriri Estuary should relieve some of that strain.

Residents have been asked to avoid flushing toilets, and hold off using showers, dishwashers or washing machines, to try to relieve stress on the network.

Flooding has been causing problems for traffic in Napier. Photo: RNZ/ Tom Kitchin

A restaurant open only for four months has been completely flooded in Emerson Street.

Andrew Beck owns Rock My Belly, along with his wife, and said the deluge started heavily just after 4pm.

“It came through everywhere. The fire brigade said ‘there’s nothing that can withstand this amount of water’, and it just came through and flooded the entire place, the brand new flooring, everything.

“We’ve only been open four months, we made it through Covid, and now – torrential rain.”

MetService Heavy Rain warnings

MetService warned heavy rain could fall in Hawke’s Bay south of Wairoa, and Gisborne until 1am Tuesday.

Thunderstorms could bring intense downfalls from the afternoon onwards, and could reach 25mm/h to 40mm/h in thunderstorms.

On top of what had fallen during the day, they said a further 70 to 100mm of rain could fall in the ranges in the evening and into the night, with 40 to 70mm elsewhere.

Forecasters warned that more heavy rain could be coming on Tuesday, too.

Photo: MetService

Heavy rain and thunderstorms could also strike Tararua district between 7pm tonight and 7am tomorrow, with up to 100mm of rain possible and downpours up to 25mm/h.

Wairarapa and the eastern hills of Wellington could expect heavy rain from 9pm Monday to 11am Tuesday, with up to 110mm expected in some parts, and intensities up to 20mm/h.

“A front in the east of the North Island should sink southwards during today and tomorrow morning, delivering heavy rain,” MetService said on Monday.

“On Tuesday, a low is forecast to track east across the upper North Island, delivering rain to many places.”

Heavy rain could hit the Coromandel Peninsula on Tuesday from 6am, and the Bay of Plenty from 11am.

https://www.covid19snews.com/2020/11/09/flooding-in-napier-as-heavy-rain-sweeps-across-north-island/